flatfloor
05-27-2002, 10:58 AM
I'm going to try to watch this tonight. My Problem will be sorting fact from fiction. This is a review from our paper.
May 27, 2002
Revolution united them. Governing divided them.
Brotherly love and solidarity crumbled swiftly once the bold fighters and brilliant statesmen known as America's founding fathers had a nation to run.
They squabbled with pen and even pistol. They split into Federalist and Republican camps. Some were seduced by sex and money, caught up in scandal and deceit. Yet they continued to believe in nationhood.
The History Channel's "Founding Brothers" (tonight and tomorrow at 9 p.m.) explores the post-Revolutionary era, from George Washington's inauguration in 1789 to the deaths of the nation's second and third presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, on the same day - July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Based on Joseph J. Ellis' Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Founding Brothers" is a follow-up to "Founding Fathers," the cable channel's top-rated miniseries in 2000.
Los Angeles-based MPH Entertainment produced the miniseries, which uses portraits, artifacts, documents, historical locations and the observations of numerous scholars. It also includes re-enactments and the voices of well-known actors.
MPH documentarian Melissa Jo Peltier, who also worked on the first miniseries, says this production was more difficult because "it's really more about ideas." The process took about a year of collaboration for partners Jim Milio and Mark Hufnail, and writer Kelly McPherson, Peltier said. Shows like this "just eat visuals," Peltier sighs, explaining that there are a limited number of portraits available, so re-enactment is essential to the storytelling.
In "Founding Fathers," the actors' faces were not revealed, but this time it was decided to use look-alikes. Several of the actors were from Living History Associates, a Virginia-based entertainment business whose members make educational appearances nationwide.
Bill Barker has portrayed Thomas Jefferson for nine years in Colonial Williamsburg, Va. "I'm told I'm the same height and weight and of similar ancestry - 6 feet, 3 inches, 180 pounds, English, Irish, Welsh." Barker says Jefferson was "a very poor public speaker," but the actor is used to talking to tourists and school groups each day, costumed as Jefferson. He is shown in this series in many silent cameos, including one where Jefferson makes notes about a conversation under the table at a dinner party.
As in "Founding Fathers," Peter Coyote provides Jefferson's voice. "His voice is calm, smooth, soothing, very placating," Peltier says.
"I would kill sometimes to have a sense of what these guys sounded like," says Joanne Freeman, assistant professor of history at Yale University and one of the miniseries' expert commentators.
So how much of the period's history is fact, how much is speculation? Freeman is cheerfully honest about how much historians tend to disagree. "Truths go in and out of style," she says. She gives credit to The History Channel for "humanizing" the architects of the U.S. Constitution. "Founding Brothers," she says, shows they "were people like us, not gods beaming down from on high, but just a bunch of guys." Also featured in "Brothers" are the voices of Brian Dennehy as Washington, Rob Lowe as James Madison, James Woods as Adams, Hal Holbrook as Benjamin Franklin and Michael York as Alexander Hamilton.
Among other featured historians are Ellis; David McCullough, author of the bestseller "John Adams"; and Richard Brookhiser, senior editor for the National Review, whose PBS documentary "Rediscovering George Washington" airs July 4.
Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.
May 27, 2002
Revolution united them. Governing divided them.
Brotherly love and solidarity crumbled swiftly once the bold fighters and brilliant statesmen known as America's founding fathers had a nation to run.
They squabbled with pen and even pistol. They split into Federalist and Republican camps. Some were seduced by sex and money, caught up in scandal and deceit. Yet they continued to believe in nationhood.
The History Channel's "Founding Brothers" (tonight and tomorrow at 9 p.m.) explores the post-Revolutionary era, from George Washington's inauguration in 1789 to the deaths of the nation's second and third presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, on the same day - July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Based on Joseph J. Ellis' Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Founding Brothers" is a follow-up to "Founding Fathers," the cable channel's top-rated miniseries in 2000.
Los Angeles-based MPH Entertainment produced the miniseries, which uses portraits, artifacts, documents, historical locations and the observations of numerous scholars. It also includes re-enactments and the voices of well-known actors.
MPH documentarian Melissa Jo Peltier, who also worked on the first miniseries, says this production was more difficult because "it's really more about ideas." The process took about a year of collaboration for partners Jim Milio and Mark Hufnail, and writer Kelly McPherson, Peltier said. Shows like this "just eat visuals," Peltier sighs, explaining that there are a limited number of portraits available, so re-enactment is essential to the storytelling.
In "Founding Fathers," the actors' faces were not revealed, but this time it was decided to use look-alikes. Several of the actors were from Living History Associates, a Virginia-based entertainment business whose members make educational appearances nationwide.
Bill Barker has portrayed Thomas Jefferson for nine years in Colonial Williamsburg, Va. "I'm told I'm the same height and weight and of similar ancestry - 6 feet, 3 inches, 180 pounds, English, Irish, Welsh." Barker says Jefferson was "a very poor public speaker," but the actor is used to talking to tourists and school groups each day, costumed as Jefferson. He is shown in this series in many silent cameos, including one where Jefferson makes notes about a conversation under the table at a dinner party.
As in "Founding Fathers," Peter Coyote provides Jefferson's voice. "His voice is calm, smooth, soothing, very placating," Peltier says.
"I would kill sometimes to have a sense of what these guys sounded like," says Joanne Freeman, assistant professor of history at Yale University and one of the miniseries' expert commentators.
So how much of the period's history is fact, how much is speculation? Freeman is cheerfully honest about how much historians tend to disagree. "Truths go in and out of style," she says. She gives credit to The History Channel for "humanizing" the architects of the U.S. Constitution. "Founding Brothers," she says, shows they "were people like us, not gods beaming down from on high, but just a bunch of guys." Also featured in "Brothers" are the voices of Brian Dennehy as Washington, Rob Lowe as James Madison, James Woods as Adams, Hal Holbrook as Benjamin Franklin and Michael York as Alexander Hamilton.
Among other featured historians are Ellis; David McCullough, author of the bestseller "John Adams"; and Richard Brookhiser, senior editor for the National Review, whose PBS documentary "Rediscovering George Washington" airs July 4.
Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.