| Chiefs | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Murder mystery |
| Directed by | Jerry London |
| Produced by | Jerry London Martin Manulis John E. Quill |
| Written by | Robert W. Lenski |
| Starring | Keith Carradine Stephen Collins Brad Davis Danny Glover Tess Harper Charlton Heston Wayne Rogers Paul Sorvino Billy Dee Williams |
| Music by | Michael Small |
| Editing by | Eric Albertson John J. Dumas Armond Lebowitz |
| Country | United States |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | November 13, 1983 – November 16, 1983 |
| Running time | 6 hours |
| No. of episodes | 3 |
Chiefs is a miniseries based upon the novel of the same name by Stuart Woods. It was broadcast on CBS over three nights in November 1983. It was directed by Jerry London, and stars Charlton Heston, Keith Carradine, Stephen Collins, Danny Glover, Wayne Rogers and Billy Dee Williams. It received three Emmy Award nominations and one Eddie Award nomination.
Contents |
The miniseries is set in the fictional town of Delano, Georgia, which appears to be loosely based on Manchester, Georgia, situated at the base of Pine Mountain. The story begins in 1924 as town patriarch Hugh Holmes (Charlton Heston) decides that the town has grown large enough to require a full time police officer. Shortly after the town appoints failed farmer Will Henry Lee (Wayne Rogers), as its first police chief, the citizens of the town become alarmed by a series of disappearances of young men and boys. The story follows three generations of Deleno police chiefs - Will Henry Lee (Rogers), Sonny Butts (Brad Davis), and Tyler Watts (Billy Dee Williams) - as they investigate the crimes. Upright lawman Will Henry Lee is the first to discover that Foxy Funderburke (Keith Carradine) is responsible for the crimes but is killed in a freak incident before he can arrest him. Now free from suspicion, Funderburke continues a decades long spree of sexually motivated murders. Shortly after World War II, crooked and violent police chief Sonny Butts also discovers Funderburke's guilt but Funderburke murders him and hides his body on his farm before he can make his discovery public. The townspeople, assuming Butts fled town because of his shady activities, does not make the connection between Funderburke and Butts' disappearance. In 1962, during the civil rights era, Tyler Watts becomes chief. Watts, a former protégé of Will Henry Lee, must fight the town's inherent racism but is finally able to catch Funderburke.
Warm Springs is the site of the vacation home of the late Franklin Delano Roosevelt and a state park bearing his name is located on Pine Mountain. In this story, Foxy Funderburke resided on Pine Mountain and it is presumed that the name of the town of Delano refers to the proximity of President Roosevelt's summer home.
Chiefs aired on CBS as a six hour miniseries. The first two hours aired 8pm November 13, 1983. The second part aired November 15 at 9pm, and the final part aired November 16 at 9pm.[1]
An edited version has been released on DVD.[2]
John J. O'Connor of the New York Times said Chiefs was "an ambitious yet flawed project that overall, it works powerfully well." Director London has "a keen sense of what the sweeping saga entails, though there are weaknesses." He criticised the ending of the miniseries for not following the novel's ending, but noted that the performances of Davis (Sonny Butts), Sorvino (Skeeter), Carradine (Foxy Funderburke) and Glover (Marshall Peters) were outstanding.[1] Among the flaws is a whipping scene in which a young white man is flogged, supposedly for having sexual intercourse with a black woman. The scriptwriters have that backwards. In the Old South, a young white man was free to gain experience with a willing black girl. What terrified the Old South was a black man having sex with a white woman. This historical inaccuracy may have been included because the white man is the implied victim of homosexual rape at the hands of Foxy Funderburke (Carradine), and the thought of a white man and a black man engaging in homosexual sex would have been equally as repellant to the sensibilities of the Old South.
The miniseries was nominated for three Emmy Awards:[3]
It was nominated for an Eddie Award in the "Best Edited Episode from a Television Mini-Series" for Eric Albertson, John J. Dumas, and Armond Lebowitz.[3]
Its success resulted in the paperback version of the novel, Chiefs, entering the New York Times Best Seller list.[4]
Actor/character