Filmed around L.A. by Stonehenge Prods. in association with Lorimar TV. Exec producers, Richard Berg, Allan Marcil; co-exec producer, Michael O'Hara; producer, Sam Manners; co-producer, Judith Paige Mitchell; director, Paul Wendkos; writers, Bill Driskill, Sara Davidson; camera, Chuck Arnold; editors, Jim Gallowway, Tom Fries; production designer, Fredric P. Pope; art director, Fred Hope; sound, Keith A. Wester; music, David Shire.

Cast: Mimi Rogers, Elliott Gould, Clancy Brown, Kim Hunter, Joe Spano, Chris Demetral, Nicholle Tom, Nicholas Rutherford, Bonnie Bartlett, Hunt Block, Robin Strasser, Andy Romano, John Pleshette, David Spielberg, Sam Wanamaker, Barbara Montgomery, Joel Polis, Ed Wiley, Robert Munic, Eloy Casados, Nicholas Guest, Rita Zohar, James Gleason, John Capodice, Eric Balfour, Paul Collins, Lackey Bevios, Lauren Woodland, Erika Flores, Jane Marla Robbins, Matthew Saks, Cory Milano, Giancarlo Pagani, Abby Nicole, Kristin Malanga, Cory Danzigger, John E. Thompson, Diana Lee Hsu, Adrienne Hurd, Kate Randolphe Burns, George NeJame, Kelly Jean Peters, E.R. Davis, Charles Holman, Paul Napier, Lawrence A. Mandley, James Harlow, Biff Yeager, Don Maxwell, James R. Sweeney, Robert Ackerman, Scott Ferguson, Ken Kerman, David Correia, Ken Gerson, Miki Kim, Robin Lynn Heath, David Cogwill, Carl McGee, Mort Sertner, Ward C. Boland, Jay Frailich, Phil Buckman, Nikki Cox, Lynn Tufeld, Paul Abbott, Mary Gregory, David Gautreaux, Lou Foresteri, Richard Camphuis, Laurie Foi.

Taken from the reported true history of an out-of-sync family from L.A.'s Hidden Hills, "Bloodlines" makes Lillian Hellman's "Little Foxes" clan seem memorably genteel. Viewers may hang in with the preposterously disagreeable, ostentatious pack out of loyalty to miniseries, but there's not much there there.

The telefilm, directed without subtlety by Paul Wendkos, dwells on coming-to-her-senses Melody (Mimi Rogers); even early on, when complimented on being a good wife, she drily comments, "I try!"

But it's tough being married to gambling-mad, money-grabbing, obnoxious hubby Elliott Gould, son of plastics millionaire Sam Wanamaker, a nasty, mean-spirited character married to patient Kim Hunter.

Gould and brother John Pleshette love gambling and resent their third brother, Wayne (major flaw in the telefilm: he never appears), who's brought into the company as a full partner.

Story supposedly starts as Wanamaker and Hunter pull into their garage on Yom Kippur and are coolly dispatched by two hooded killers.

Motives come in flashbacks as Gould's seen being humiliated by his dad. He hangs around with the wrong sort but, when his parents are murdered, he's observing Yom Kippur.

Rogers sticks to her husband, who's picked up with his brother for the murders. Accustomed to riding in fancy cars and shopping in the best places, she's used to a life of wealth. As the Bill Driskill-Sara Davidson teleplay unfolds and Rogers goes to work, she's shunned by former friends but begins finding herself.

Rogers somehow makes the character sympathetic. Gould creates an oafish, ignoble creature; Hunter and Wanamaker efficiently play out their roles.

main articles page