On TVE in 1977, on the eve of elections, the images of nudity and violence of one of the phenomena of American TV at the time were striking. Rich Man, Poor Man was a 12-episode miniseries that spearheaded the style that in Spain bore the title of Great Stories.Historical fictions or based on best sellers called to be an event. In that relationship were also Roots, QB VII, Seventh Avenue, Holocaust, Captains and Kings or the BritishYo, Claudio . The response on TVE was with Canas y barro, Fortunata y Jacinta, La barraca.
Premiered on ABC in February 1976, Rich Man Poor Manadapted a fat novel published in 1970 by Irvin Shaw. It narrated the life of two brothers who ran at opposite poles from the New York bakery of the patriarch, a quarrelsome German immigrant in charge of Edward Asner , who became independent from The Girl on TV to have his own series, Lou Grant, a quarry of journalists. .
The Jordache brothers, Rudy and Tom, were in charge of Peter Strauss , who barely went from being the actor of the moment as the disciplined young man who becomes a senator, and Nick Nolte, the misguided family who ends up being a boxer in the underworld. Nolte has had a long career with films like The Prince of the Tides, Hotel Rwanda or The Thin Red Line, but for many Spanish viewersit is even “rich man, poor man.”
The artist most marked by the series was William Smith, erected as the evil (and one-eyed) Falconetti, who settles accounts with the poor, who was not so bad, Tom. He ends up being the fixation of the rich and senator, who was not so good, Rudy. In the novel he did not go beyond being mayor, a position that in Spain, however, allows the quick jump to minister.
William Smith died a few days ago without ever being able to escape from Falconetti.Rich Man, Poor Man became an international success and since there was no other book at hand, a second part was created for the following year, with 21 episodes, of which Nolte did not want to know anything.
Strauss said that he did the continuation but that,please, they will kill him so as not to fall into the temptation of playing Rudy anymore.The one who killed him was, of course, Falconetti, the great television villain of the early color television. Rudy riddled Falconetti in an alley, but like Pedro Navaja’s prostitute, the bad guy still had the energy to give the requested kill to the rich man .
Smith became Conan’s father, but since his face was associated with the hitman, there was no way to ‘unbox’. He has died at the age of 88 with Falconetti in a state of nostalgic oblivion.
The author of the book was involved in a third part that was with the grandchildren Jordache, beggar man, thief man, which was not interesting even here, when we only had two channels. Of course, Falconetti’s one-eyed man was not there, whom we will also miss if necessary.
