THE JOURNAL-REGISTER Medina. New York, Wednesday July 27,1983
ABC Unveils The Hamptons By JULIANNE HASTINGS
NEW YORK (UPI) - ABC's sizzling hot summer series "The Hamptons" premieres Wednesday night with enough sex, old money and power to make those nouveau riche cowpokes in Texas look like a bumbling bunch of greenhorns. The five-part dramatic series, which will air Wednesday nights from 9-10 p.m. EDT, focuses on a ruthless power struggle between two old-line Eastern famines for control of their jointly owned department store empire. There's also Nicholas Atwater, a Jay Gatsby-type character — mysterious, handsome, and wealthy beyond imagination — who jumps into the fray for his own, dark reasons, which are melodramatically revealed at the end of the first episode.
The action was filmed on location in Manhattan, on Long Island and in Westchester County, N.Y. — the latter needed because a Hamptons country club nixed a request to allow filming on its grounds.
Episode No. 1 opens in the midst of that ancient summertime Friday ritual — the mass escape from Manhattan. First we see Jay Mortimer (John Reilly), president of the Duncan-Chadway department store chain, arrive at his apartment in a limousine to pick up his older wife, Adrienne (Bibi Besch), sole heir to the Duncan half of Duncan-Chadway, and her college-bound daughter Tracy (Holly Roberts). Mom's not in the limo yet, so Mortimer puts a lusty hand on fair Tracy's knee. "Hi beautiful," he leers. Talk about starting a weekend!
Next a high-powered lady lawyer (Kate Dezina) and her doctor boyfriend (Phil Casnoff) are spotted running toward each other along a crowded sidewalk, embracing, kissing and dashing off to then weekend love nest.
Finally , Atwater (Daniel Pilon) clambers into his Jet Star helicopter and heads for his new summer place, the sprawling Beach Manor complex, which actually is the Dupont Mansion in Old Westbury, N.Y.
Pan of East Hampton and the Coastline: Old man Chadway seen watching girls in bikinis playing volley ball on beach. The department store mogul turns, starts to climb steps to house, collapses — with a stroke. There goes the store!
A station wagon pulls up in front of the house and out jumps Chadway's son Peter (Michael Goodwin), managing director of the chain his father co-founded, his faithful wife Lee (Leigh Taylor-Young) and his Yalie blond son Brian (Craig Sheffer).
After everyone gets settled in - old Chadway at the East Hampton Hospital — there's a lavish dinner dance where everyone gets together and the viewer gets a good idea of what's to come. And there is still more storyline in this first episode to be told. The costumes and sets are storybook gems. The cast is attractive and the show's timeslot makes it the lead-in to ABC's popular "Dynasty," giving soap addicts a consummate, two-hour fix. But if all goes as planned, how do you make a winter series about life in a summer resort?
By
Paul Raven ·
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