| Beacon Hill | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Drama |
| Written by | Lionel Chetwynd |
| Directed by | Fielder Cook Mel Ferber |
| Starring | Peter Coffield Robin Mary Paris |
| Country of origin | USA |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Robert Stigwood Organization |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | 25 August 1975 – 4 November 1975 |
Beacon Hill is a short-lived (13 episodes) dramatic television series shown on CBS in 1975. The show focused on the fictitious Lassiter family and their Irish servants who lived on Louisburg Square, in Boston's fashionable Beacon Hill area. The Lassiters were Irish Catholic who were led by Ben Lasiter who had a career as a politically connected contractor who owned a brick yard and real estate. It was considered to be an Americanized version of the popular British series, Upstairs, Downstairs, of which the premise was almost the same.[1] The wealthy family lived upstairs, and the servants ruled belowstairs.
The show starred Stephen Elliott as Ben Lassiter, who worked as the "Gray eminence" at Boston City Hall and Nancy Marchand the Lassiter family matriarch, Mary Lassiter. Other family Maeve McGuire as Maude Lassiter Palmer; Edward Herrmann as Maude's husband, Richard Palmer, a yachtsman; Kathryn Walker as Fawn Lassiter, the maverick and artistic daughter; Michael Nouri as Giorgio Bellonci, Fawn's music teacher; DeAnn Mears as Emily Lassiter Bullock, Betsy's emotionally reserved mother; Ray Cooper as Trevor Bullock, Emily's husband/Betsy's father; Linda Purl as his granddaughter, Betsy Bullock; Kitty Winn as Rosamond Lassiter, the plain jane daughter who was a whiz at the family business; David Dukes as the only son, Robert Lassiter, who was wounded in World War I and was still traumatized by his injuries.
The servants were Beatrice Straight as their head housemaid, Mrs. Emmeline Hacker; Susan Blanchard as Maureen Mahaffey, an under maid, and Emmeline's niece; Paul Ryan Rudd as Brian Mallory, Emmeline's nephew and the Lassiter family's chauffeur; Barry Snider as Harry Emmet, the former chauffeur, who was fired for stealing money from the Lassiter family; George Rose as the Lassiter butler, Arthur Hacker; David Rounds as Terence O'Hara, Hacker's assistant; Richard Ward as William Piper, the family cook; Don Blakely as Grant Piper (William's son); Holland Taylor as Marilyn Gardiner, Mrs. Lassiter's personal assistant/secretary.
The premiere episode was a ratings success, but the ratings dropped drastically as the show went along, and was soon after cancelled.