Beulah Land (1980)

Director: Harry Falk, Virgil W. Vogel

Writer: Jacques Meunier, Lonnie Coleman

Cast: Lesley Ann Warren, Michael Sarrazin, Eddie Albert, Hope Lange, Paul Rudd

Synopsis: This florid amalgam of a pair of novels by Lonnie Coleman about the Old South had ambitions to be the TV equivalent of "Gone With the Wind" in its telling of a young southern belle who becomes mistress of a magnificent plantation. Trouble-plagued throughout its production (the original director, Virgil Vogel, had a heart attack and was replaced by Harry Falk, and JP Miller, author of "Days of Wine and Roses" and many other distinguished television plays, asked to have his name replaced by a pseudonym after too many changes were made in his original script), "Beulah Land" then went on to face a hostile reception from many black factions because of its harsh depiction of slaves and its miscegenation subplot. It did, however, win an Emmy Award nomination for costume design.