CTVA
The Classic TV Archive - US  Drama Series
Beacon Hill (1975)
 Episode Guide compiled by The Classic TV Archive
with contributions by: Rina Fox
references:
TV Guide / Library of Congress (telnet://locis.loc.gov)
Internet Movie Database (https://us.imdb.com)
UCLA Film and Television Archive
Writers Guild of America (wga)
------------
BEACON HILL
------------
Produced for Robert Stigwood Org. (RSO)
for
CBS (Tuesday 10-11pm EST) (26Aug75-4Nov75)
Executive Producer Beryl Vertue  /   Producer Jacqueline Babbin

US Period Drama series 1975 11 episodes x 60 min Color Videotape
cast:
Stephen Elliott as Benjamin Lassiter
Nancy Marchand as Mary Lassiter
David Dukes as Robert Lassiter (only Son)(wounded in WWI)
Maeve McGuire as Maude Lassister (Eldest Daughter)
Edward Herrmann as Richard Palmer (Maude's Husband)(Yachtsman)
DeAnn Mears as Emily Lassister Bullock (Middle Daughter)
Roy Cooper as Trevor Bullock (Emily's husband)(Stockbroker)
Linda Purl as Betsy Bullock (Trevor & Emily's Daughter)
Holland Taylor as Marilyn Gardiner (Mrs Lassiter's Secretary)

Kitty Winn as Rosamond Lassiter (Daughter)
Kathryn Walker as Fawn Lassiter (Youngest Daughter)
Michael Nouri as Giorgio Bellonci (Fawn's Music Teacher)
*
George Rose as Arthur Hacker (Butler)
Beatrice Straight as Mrs. Emmeline Hacker (Servant)
Susan Blanchard as Maureen Mahaffey (Under Maid)
David Rounds as Terence O'Hara (Hacker's Assistant)
Paul Rudd as Bryan Mallory (Chauffeur)
Barry Snider as Harry Emmett (ex-Chauffeur)
Richard Ward as William Piper (Cook)
Don Blakely as Grant Piper (William's Son)
Sydney Swire as Eleanor

Sets designed by Tom John /  Costumes by Joseph Aulisi
Music by Marvin Hamlisch  / Theme song "If You Hadn't Left Me (Crying)"

Premise:
The biggest flop of the 1975-76 season "Beacon Hill" was an expensive, cumbersome and much ballyhooed attempt
to Americanize British television's "Upstairs, Downstairs".
This US version detailed the relationships, battles and dramatic incidents involving members of the well-to-do
Lassiter family in 1920s Boston and their Irish servants.
Upstairs in the great hall, Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Lassiter and their rich Bostonian friends are raising their
champagne glasses for the last legal drink they will have for the next 13 years. Down in the kitchen,
the servant lad, Bryan Mallory has been dispatched to find Mr. Robert, the Lassister's only son, who lies
in a drunken stupor across town. And that's life on "Beacon Hill" on Prohibition Eve, January 15, 1920 as
it is depicted in the opening segment of the new CBS television series.

Background:
Produced at a cost between $750,000 to $1,000,000 for the two hour premiere, each subsequent episode will
cost $197,500 each.
Though 13 episodes were taped, 2 were never televised as CBS decided to cut its losses after only eleven weeks

Note:
The exteriors for the series were shot at 89 Mount Vernon Street in Boston Massachusetts, a mansion that looks
like what a Beacon Hill house should look like.

################ Beacon Hill ################
############## season Fall 1975 ##############
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CBS (Tuesday 10-11pm EST) (26Aug75-4Nov75)

1.01 Beacon Hill:  (2 hr premiere)
26Aug1975 CBS Tue
Writer Sidney Carroll
Director Fielder Cook
Synopsis:
The family is in an uproar after it's revealed that Robert is involved with a black brothel. Fawn Lassister
is having an affair with her voice teacher and 18-year-old Betsy, a Lassiter grand-daughter is playing around
with the chauffeur. [RF]
*Note: The premiere episode gained a 25.4 rating in the Nielsen attracting 44 percent of the TV audience,
it was all downhill hereafter.

1.02 Beacon Hill: THE COLONEL AND FAWN
02Sep1975 CBS Tue
guest cast:
George Taylor
Synopsis:
A raucous party thrown by Fawn Lassiter for an opera impressario provides an enterprising gossip columnist
with an angle for blackmail in which some extremely salty topics are exposed. [RF]

1.03 Beacon Hill: THE POOR LITTLE THING
09Sep1975 CBS Tue
guest cast:
Anna Levine ........ Doreen Gallagher
Synopsis:
Mrs. Hacker's inexhaustible supply of relatives provides the Lassiter household with another servant and a problem:
the new maid is charming all the men and making enemies of the women. [RF]
Synopsis 2:
Another of Mrs. Hacker's nieces arrives from Ireland to work below-stairs and Mrs. Hacker doubts if she'll work out.

1.04 Beacon Hill: THE MARBLEHEAD CLUB
16Sep1975 CBS Tue
Synopsis:
Ben Lassiter is suddenly recognized by a socially prominent neighbor, who until now has snubbed the Lassiters,
and suggest putting Ben up for membership in an exclusive club. [RF]

1.05 Beacon Hill: THE SOLDIERS
23Sep1975 CBS Tue
Synopsis:
An embittered war veteran finds it difficult to accept the loss of an arm while another finds his attempts to
find a job are hampered by Boston's color line. [RF]
Synopsis 2:
Mr. Piper's son Grant, a bookkeeper before he joined the Army, returns from World War I and refuses to bow to
the Lassiters for a job. So, with the Lassiter's former chauffer the two decide to work together on a new
nightclub venture.

1.06 Beacon Hill: THE SHINING EXAMPLE
30Sep1975 CBS Tue
Synopsis:
Harry Emmett is at the center of some trouble, not only has he ordered illegal liquor for the new club, but
he's still seeing Betsy, the Lassiter's granddaughter against the family's wishes. Rob goes to the club armed
with a pistol to straighten Emmet out. [RF]

1.07 Beacon Hill: THE SPEAKEASY
07Oct1975 CBS Tue
Synopsis:
A visit to Harry Emmett's new club confirms Brian's suspicions that the place is a speakeasy. What's making the
young chauffeur uneasy is how to persuade Grant to give up his lucrative but illegal job as the club's accountant. [RF]

1.08 Beacon Hill: THE MILLION DOLLAR GATE
14Oct1975 CBS Tue
guest cast:
Ken Kercheval ....... Dist. Attorney
Robert Prosky ....... McLeague
Synopsis:
In his eagerness to pay back his passage from Ireland, Brian gets involved in an illegal deal to transport
films of the Dempsey-Carpentier fight. [RF]

1.09 Beacon Hill: THE SUITORS
21Oct1975 CBS Tue
Synopsis:
Brian is all set to visit his aunt, but first he has a confrontation with Rosamund. [RF]

1.10 Beacon Hill: THE TEST
28Oct1975 CBS Tue
guest cast:
Roberts Blossom ..... D.W. Griffith
Peter Coffield ...... Larry Greene
Robin Mary Paris .... Alix Greene
Synopsis:
Fawn Lassiter's dramatic approach to life puts her in the spotlight as she does a screen test for a legendary
film director. [RF]

1.11 Beacon Hill: THE PRETENDERS
04Nov1975 CBS Tue
guest cast:
Peter Coffield ...... Larry Greene
Robin Mary Paris .... Alix Greene
Synopsis:
The Lassiter household prepares for Betsy Bullock's debut in Boston. [RF]

################ Beacon Hill ################
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