Beacon Hill

The network TV equivalent of Heaven’s Gate, CBS blew a ton of money on this 1975 rip-off ofUpstairs, Downstairs detailing the lah-de-dah relationships, incidents and double-dealings of rich-as-hell Lassiter family in Boston in the 1920’s.Of course, so it could really steal fromUpstairs, Downstairs, the show also focused on the family’s Irish servants. The acting was top quality but the writing was of the standard of your average awful soap opera, reducing what should have been interesting lives into total cliche. The audience duly bailed and the network decided not to try to fix something that seemed completely broken from the concept stage, thus dumping the series at the end of the first season, even though it won an Emmy. The lasting legacy of Beacon Hill though has to be the exposure given to Linda Purl, who had previously exposed far more of herself in 1975’s Crazy Mama. You can see the pictures right here atMrSkin!