Hombre rico, hombre pobre II

It is very strange to see Rich Man Poor Man (book one and two) after all these years. When I was a kid, i remember enjoy both parts. But I haven't seen it since the 80s... And on a french channel TEVA, they rerun part one and two. To be honest the two parts are really different : even if we find some similar characters and apparently the same storyline, it's really not the same thing.

the first chapter is a strong and brilliant story about the fate of two brothers. The second part gives me (now) a strange feeling : the estep/falconetti storyline is strong and full of suspense. It's a kind of dram/detective/soap show, but it's really enjoying.

I think you have to appreciate it as a different thing. My wife, who is watching the show (one and two) for the first time love both parts. I have to admitt that it was very difficult test for gregg henry to act after nick nolte. But it is great. And James Caroll Jordan (playing billy abbott) is one of the few characters in the TV history who is very hard to understand. One second, cool and charming (the perfect guy), next second (traitor and a bad guy...)

Of course, Peter STRAUSS is great like the rest of the cast, except maybe Kaye LENZ (but I suspect the dubbing - her french voice- to be in charge more than the actress).

I hope americain people can soon watch the show again.

I saw the DVD at my local library, and recalling how I liked the show when I saw it years ago, I checked it out. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing again the first part of the series. The characters were well played, believable and interesting, as was the plot. However, the second part was a disappointment. The writing seemed stilted, focusing on prurient and unlikely sexual encounters to the detriment of continuation of the story. It seemed that the supposedly upright and principled male characters lost all self control when it came to dealing with women. They had to have 'it'. I don't watch the Soaps, but I think this segment was pretty much written with that venue in mind. Too bad.

This was not meant to be a mini-series, but a series.

The original RMPM was groundbreaking television and the reason why so many restaurants are closed on Mondays even today. Monday nights were "Rich Man Poor Man night", and people stayed home to watch the mini-series since very few people had VCRs back then, and recording shows was not a common option.

After the mini-series, the producers saw an opportunity for a steady stream of cash from an open-ended series. They offered Peter Strauss more money than he thought he would ever be able to make in his life, which he of course accepted. They made the same offer to Susie Blakely, but she declined because she believed she was destined for movie stardom. She did accept to appear in the two-hour pilot on the condition that her character be killed off in the first hour!

The ratings of Book II were consistently good but not great. Production costs were very high since they had hired the very best writing talent and had them working around the clock. By the middle of the first season, it was becoming obvious that the ratings were simply not strong enough to justify the costs. The audience missed Julie Prescott / Susie Blakely and just couldn't get used to Maggie Porter / Susan Sullivan. Bringing back Kay Lenz as Kate Jordache and making her part of a love traingle with Rudy didn't lift the ratings. So they wrapped up the story toward the end of the season 1 and repackaged the whole thing as a second mini-series.

The legacy of Book II, though, was that it became a template for prime time soap operas. Dallas premiered a year later, and they were off to the races.

Interestingly, there was a plan for a Book III with major production redesign. This one would be more of a police drama vs. Soap opera. Rudy will have survived the gunfight with Falconetti, but he leaves the senate to become the Director of the CIA. The show was supposed to be about him leading an agency to battle terrorism. All networks hated the concept and refused to pick it up. But the creators hung on to the idea and made it into a TV movie called Under Siege a decade later. Peter Strauss returns but legally they were not allowed to make any references to RMPM since ABC owned the rights and the TV movie was produced by NBC. That said, the character that Strauss plays is clearly Rudy Jordache, by another name. That TV movie was meant as a pilot for a new show which was never made.

Hi there fans of Rich Man Poor Man.I managed to purchase Book 2 and I must admit that watching it, I became increasingly sadder and sadder.I felt so sorry for Rudy and his family as nothing goes their way and Estep, Falconetti and co triumph.I just couldn't watch the episodes from 17 onwards.Blows after blows, I felt so involved, it was like I took all these blows.I generally like reality to transpire in films and can't say that I am a big fan of happy endings,but what's happening here is too much.It's even darker than book 1 by comparison.I mean, Rudy is such a nice guy and despite the love of 3 special women, career and money he cuts such a lonely, dramatic figure.There seems to be So I must admit that I have only one curiosity ( I know what happens between Rudy-Falconetti at the end)does Rudy manage to get back at Estep even in a small way.Please let me know.Thanks. PS It would be such a relief to know that Estep gets some punishment that would probably give me enough courage to go thru the episodes which I couldn't previously watch thru sheer frustration. . .I was also thinking that maybe if Roots wasn't running at the same time this show would have continued.Who will ever know?

While RICH MAN, POOR MAN BOOK II is no RICH MAN, POOR MAN being impossible to replace Nick Nolte after he dies in the original's climax, it's a pretty great sequel, mostly thanks to William Smith as crazy villain Anthony Falconetti who, while shaping-up and tearing-down the last four episodes of the first venture, is now a continuously formidable presence, not only stealing scenes but destroying anyone and anything in his wake...

And this time the POOR MAN is twofold... Since there's no luckless boxer/sailor Nolte to contrast returning star and now sole headliner Peter Strauss as ambitious, sometimes idealistic Senator/businessman Rudy Jordache, Nolte's beloved son, Wesley (Gregg Henry) and con artist Billy (James Carroll Jordan), neglected son of Bill Bixby and Susan Blakely (the latter providing merely a cameo), both take the POOR spot in different ways...

Wesley's broke despite being taken in by his RICH uncle while Billy fights to make it big in the music industry, so he's basically the young climber version of Peter Strauss while Wesley, blond and muscular like dad, takes Nolte's hapless workingman route, almost having an affair with tough, stubborn yet incredibly cute girl-next-door/union man's daughter Penny Peyser... until Billy gets in quicker and ignites an addictive whirlwind romance/love triangle...

But there are so many characters to cover, including a resilient, quick-witted Susan Sullivan as Rudy's girlfriend lawyer (particularly during D. C. hearings straight from THE GODFATHER II including crooked senator G. D. Spradlin and Peter Donat), whose daughter Kimberly Beck is a flirtatious teenager smitten with Wesley when, by the 11th hour, all the characters wind up in Sin City Vegas to square-off against the show's two polar opposite antagonists...

Besides Falconetti is an extremely callous yet still somewhat charming/monopolizing billionaire Peter Haskell as Charles Estep, who Strauss's Rudy is after and whose wife, the beautiful Laraine Stephens, holds a game-changing secret...

But the most fun's had with Billy and his up-and-down dealings running then co-owning a once-great record company (owned by endearingly grouchy gambler Sorrell Booke); he basically sells his soul to protect a fickle and spoiled, knockout version of Janis Joplin in Cassie Yates, taking the otherwise womanizer on a proverbial ride...

Meanwhile, William Smith's powerfully methodical method-acting is what really stands out, shaking the dust off particular moments where the original series' edgy (semi-historical) drama becomes kitschy melodrama; he's busy too, fighting off Nolte's vengeful partner Herbert Jefferson Jr., and, also returning is Kay Lenz, Nolte's sexy little widow, this time a goofy/silly laughing girl in a contrived affair with Strauss...

And yet, despite the soap operatic tropes and romantic distractions, like any good televised serial, the characters and situations leave viewers salivating for the next episode... while Peter Strauss is even more intense and dogged, likable, sympathetic and hardcore in the leading role (providing more than a few fantastic monologue-lectures)... making both RICH MAN, POOR MAN shows a "binge-watch" experience far before there was such a thing.