ABC NOVEL FOR TELEVISION: THE THORN BIRDS {EPISODE 1} (TV)
Summary
The first episode of this sweeping miniseries based on the novel by Colleen McCullough. This drama presents the saga of the Cleary family of New South Wales, Australia, and the forty year relationship between the beautiful and willful Meggie Cleary and the handsome, ambitious Father Ralph de Bricassart. The following events occur in 1920: Father Ralph, a cultured young priest sent to Australia from Ireland, gives his regular private Sunday mass at Drogheda, a vast ranch owned by the rich and manipulative Mary Carson, who also emigrated from Ireland years earlier; Carson, many years the priest's senior, flirts openly with him and the two engage in verbal sparring, based mainly on Mary's conceit that she knows the priest's nature better than than he; Father Ralph admits to Mary that he was sent to Australia after having insulted a bishop, and Mary insinuates that he has befriended her because he is ambitious and wants Drogheda for the Catholic church -- his ticket to advancement; Mary reveals to the priest that she has one living relation -- a poor brother, Paddy, who lives with his family in New Zealand and whom she has decided to bring to Drogheda to manage the ranch; Mary tells Father Ralph that whoever inherits Drogheda will have to earn it first; Ralph picks up the Cleary family -- Paddy and his wife Fiona, their four sons Frank, Bob, Jack and Stuart -- at the train station, but he is immediately drawn to their pretty, neglected young daughter, Meggie; Mary rather brusquely introduces the Clearys to Drogheda, and makes it clear she expects Paddy to work long hard days managing the ranch, the biggest in New South Wales; Mary meets with her lawyer Henry Gough and orders him to keep secret, until her death, the fact that Drogheda is but a mere pittance in her vast financial holdings; Ralph visits the stoic Fiona, a Protestant who has lost her own faith, and she openly reveals that she favors her sons and barely considers lonely Meggie; Mary appears threatened by the growing bond between Meggie and the priest -- who becomes companion, parent, and teacher to her; after being nearly interrogated by Mary, Fiona admits that she married far below her social class, but refuses to divulge her reasons for giving up her place in New Zealand society for Mary's penniless brother; Paddy and eldest son Frank have a series of escalating arguments in which the wild-natured Frank bristles at taking orders from Paddy; Meggie complains to Ralph that her mother ignores her and loves only Frank; sensitive young Stuart -- hurt by an experience in which Paddy made him feel like a coward -- shoots a charging wild boar to the shock and delight of his father and brothers; in an argument, Frank insults his father's lowly background and blames Paddy for the hard, graceless existence Fiona must endure; Fiona tells Paddy she is pregnant; at Father Ralph's and Frank's urging, Meggie goes away to convent school at the priest's parish; and Meggie is withdrawn and lonely in her first days at school, much to the concern of Father Ralph.
The story moves into 1921 as Father Ralph delights Meggie by suggesting she live with him and housekeeper Annie at the rectory instead of at the convent while she attends school; Father Ralph confides in Meggie that she fills a void in him that God cannot; Father Ralph admits to Frank that he is ambitious and strives to be the perfect priest -- though he has trouble with his vow of obedience; Frank is disgusted by his mother Fiona's pregnancy and blames Paddy; Fiona tells Frank he needs to become less attached to her and find a wife; Mary Carson makes an overt sexual pass at Father Ralph on her veranda, and mockingly calls him Cardinal DeBriccasart when he refuses her advances; at the county fair, Mary is jealous when she learns that young Meggie is living in the rectory; Frank fights in the fair's boxing show and wins; after the fair, Paddy and Frank get into an argument when Paddy belittles Frank's boxing purse and Frank accuses Paddy of pawing his mother -- culminating when an angry Paddy accidentally reveals that Fiona was already pregnant with Frank by another man when he married her; Frank tells a distraught Meggie that he will be leaving home to take a place in the traveling boxing show; Paddy confides in Father Ralph that Fiona disgraced her prominent family by becoming pregnant and he -- a dairy hand at her family's estate -- promised her father he would marry her; Paddy admits to Father Ralph that he loves Fiona intensely, but knows she does not love him; Meggie returns home from school to take care of newborn baby Hal; and a furious Father Ralph confronts Mary over her sudden decision to stop funding Meggie's education. The following events occur in 1923: Mary tells Father Ralph that the Pope has decided that Australia should have its own cardinal, but he tells her that since she made the Clearys her heirs, he feels free of his old ambitions and desires; Mary angrily declares the priest's words a "performance"; when baby Hal becomes sick and dies, Paddy breaks down while Fiona remains composed and unemotional; and Meggie -- not having been informed by her mother about menstruation -- thinks she is dying when she starts getting her period, and is relieved when Father Ralph explains she is perfectly fine; and Meggie surprises the priest by announcing that she intends to marry him when she grows up. The following events occur in 1929: the staff at Drogheda prepare for Mary's gala seventy-fifth birthday party, while Mary secretly prepares a new will in her bedroom; Meggie -- now a beautiful young woman -- makes a grand entrance at the party and turns many heads; Meggie avoids the advances of several young men as she seeks out Father Ralph -- who consciously avoids her; late that evening, while the party is still going on, Mary announces she will retire for the evening and asks the priest to take her up to her room; Mary informs Father Ralph that she is tired of living and has one last wish -- that he make love to her, which he refuses; an enraged Mary reveals that she has decided to destroy him because she loves him so intensely; later, Father Ralph catches up with the heartbroken Meggie and he tells her she mustn't keep her romantic illusions about him; Mary dies in her sleep that evening and lawyer Harry Gough privately informs Father Ralph that her new will leaves everything to the Catholic Church, with the condition that the Clearys stay on as resident managers of Drogheda, and that Father Ralph act the chief authority of the will; Harry pleads with Father Ralph to destroy the new will and leave the estate to the Clearys, but the priest does not; after the formal will reading, Father Ralph confesses to an uncomprehending Meggie that Mary Carson has won -- he has betrayed Meggie for his ambitions, just as Mary knew he would, and it has all been arranged so Meggie will never want for anything, nor ever have anything; Father Ralph confesses to Meggie that he wants her, but when she suggests he leave the priesthood and marry her, he admits he loves God more. Includes commercials.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: March 27, 1983 Sunday 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 2:58:59
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T85:0001
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama; Literature - Adaptations; Romance; Australia; Clergy - Priests
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV, 1983
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - American Airlines
- TV - Commercials - American Greetings cards
- TV - Commercials - Atari 5200 Supersystem computer
- TV - Commercials - Aveno medicine bath and bar
- TV - Commercials - Calvin Klein jeans
- TV - Commercials - Commodore 64 computer
- TV - Commercials - Commodore Vic 20 computers
- TV - Commercials - Denny's restaurants
- TV - Commercials - Diet Coke soft drinks
- TV - Commercials - Dole sliced pineapple
- TV - Commercials - E.F. Hutton financial services
- TV - Commercials - Emery Urgent Letter overnight delivery
- TV - Commercials - Fantastik household cleaner
- TV - Commercials - Finesse shampoo
- TV - Commercials - First Interstate Bank
- TV - Commercials - GTE (General Telephone) calling cards & phones
- TV - Commercials - Gallo wine
- TV - Commercials - Great Western Savings IRA services
- TV - Commercials - Hickory Farms smoked sausages
- TV - Commercials - Jeep automobiles
- TV - Commercials - Jell-o products
- TV - Commercials - Jergens moisturizers
- TV - Commercials - L'Oréal cosmetics
- TV - Commercials - L'eggs Sheer Elegance pantyhose
- TV - Commercials - Lady's Choice anti-perspirant
- TV - Commercials - Levolor window blinds
- TV - Commercials - Louis Feraud Fantasque perfume from Avon
- TV - Commercials - Maybelline cosmetics
- TV - Commercials - No Nonsense pantyhose
- TV - Commercials - Oil of Olay moisturizer
- TV - Commercials - Permalens contact lenses
- TV - Commercials - Peugeot automobiles
- TV - Commercials - Prell shampoo
- TV - Commercials - Renault Alliance automobiles
- TV - Commercials - Riunite wine
- TV - Commercials - Scope mouthwash
- TV - Commercials - Serengeti eyewear
- TV - Commercials - Spray 'n Wash
- TV - Commercials - Stanley tools
- TV - Commercials - Tampax products
- TV - Commercials - U-Haul rental trucks
- TV - Commercials - Union 76 gasoline
- TV - Commercials - Yes laundry detergent & fabric softener
- TV - Promos - "ABC World News Tonight"
- TV - Promos - "Baby Makes Five"
- TV - Promos - "Benson"
- TV - Promos - "Channel 7 Eyewitness News" (KABC-TV, Los Angeles)
- TV - Promos - "High Road to China" motion picture
- TV - Promos - "It Takes Two"
- TV - Promos - "Ryan's Four"
- TV - Promos - "That's Incredible"
- TV - Promos - "The Sting" motion picture
- TV - Promos - "Too Close for Comfort"
CREDITS
- David L. Wolper … Executive Producer
- Edward Lewis … Executive Producer
- Stan Margulies … Producer
- Irving Lazar … Associate Producer
- Daryl Duke … Director
- Carmen Culver … Writer
- Colleen McCullough … Based on the novel by
- Henry Mancini … Music by
- Richard Chamberlain … Cast, Ralph de Bricassart
- Barbara Stanwyck … Cast, Mary Carson
- Jean Simmons … Cast, Fiona "Fee" Cleary
- Richard Kiley … Cast, Paddy Cleary
- John Friedrich … Cast, Frank Cleary
- Allyn Ann McLerie … Cast, Mrs. Smith
- Richard Venture … Cast, Harry Gough
- Stephanie Faracy … Cast, Judy
- Barry Corbin … Cast, Pete
- Sydney Penny … Cast, Young Meggie Cleary
- Stephan Burns … Cast, Jack Cleary
- Brett Cullen … Cast, Bob Cleary
- Antoinette Bower … Cast, Sarah MacQueen
- Dwier Brown … Cast, Stuart Cleary
- de Lancie, John … Cast, Alastair MacQueen
- Bill Morey … Cast, Angus MacQueen
- Vidal Peterson … Cast, Young Stuart Cleary
- Holly Palance … Cast, Miss Carmichael
- Meg Wyllie … Cast, Annie
- Wally Dalton … Cast, the Barker at the Fair
- Nan Martin … Cast, Sister Agatha