Week of March 30: Upstairs and Downstairs with "Backstairs at the White House"

By Sylvia Gurinsky

Preparations for the film "The Butler," based on the life of White House butler Eugene Allen, made news this week for potentially unusual casting choices (Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan and Oprah Winfrey as Allen's wife among them).

One has to wonder how director Lee Daniels, best known for gritty dramas such as "Monster's Ball" and "Precious," will frame this movie. That's because more than 30 years ago, NBC and Ed Friendly Productions gave a four-part look at how it's supposed to be done - "Backstairs at the White House."

"Backstairs," based on the book "My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House" by Lillian Rogers Parks, covered the experiences of Parks and her mother, Maggie Rogers, as members of the White House staff from the administrations of Presidents William Howard Taft through Dwight David Eisenhower.

The miniseries featured an all-star cast, including Leslie Uggams as Lillian and Olivia Cole as Maggie, Louis Gossett, Jr. as Houseman Levi Mercer, Leslie Nielsen as butler Ike Hoover, Cloris Leachman as the head of the White House staff - and that's just the "downstairs" part. Presidents included Victor Buono as Taft, Robert Vaughn (Woodrow Wilson), George Kennedy (Warren Harding), Ed Flanders (Calvin Coolidge) and "M*A*S*H"'s Harry Morgan as Harry Truman. First Ladies included Julie Harris as Nellie Taft; Kim Hunter and Claire Bloom as the two Mrs. Wilsons; Celeste Holm as Florence Harding; Lee Grant as Grace Coolidge; Eileen Heckart as Eleanor Roosevelt; Estelle Parsons as Bess Truman and Barbara Barrie as Mamie Eisenhower.

Friendly, of course, was the creator and producer of "Little House on the Prairie." Some behind the scenes are familiar to fans of "Hawaii Five-O" - Michael O'Herlihy, who directed, and Morton Stevens, who composed the music.

"Backstairs" received numerous Emmy nominations, but won only for makeup. This was the height of the miniseries era on network television, and there was intense competition in 1979 - especially from "Roots: The Next Generations."

"Backstairs at the White House" is available on DVD.

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In memory of the great Earl Scruggs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjVzmIV8gwk

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