Rich Man, Poor Man Book II is an American television miniseries that aired on ABC in one-hour episodes at 9:00pm ET/PT on Tuesday nights between September 21, 1976 and March 8, 1977. A sequel to Rich Man, Poor Man that had aired the previous season, it focused on the further exploits and conflicts of the Jordache family.
Due to the popularity of the first series this was rushed out as the sequel before the author Irwin Shaw had even written a "Book 2" sequel.
Synopsis
The series began shortly after the death of Tom Jordache. His son Wesley (Gregg Henry) is now in the care of Tom's brother Rudy (Peter Strauss), who was seeking a seat in the United States Senate. Also living in the household was Billy, Rudy's stepson, and much of the ongoing storyline concentrated on the tension between the two ambitious boys. Also crucial to the plot was Rudy's protracted battle with Charles Estep (Peter Haskell), the mysterious billionaire owner of Tricorp. Returning from the original series was Anthony Falconetti (William Smith), who had served time for the murder of Tom Jordache and was now free and intent on disposing of Rudy as well.
At the same time, Falconetti firmly intends to eliminate Rudy, Wesley and all the friends of the Jordache family and this time it will not be enough to ignore it to escape him.
Cast
Davey Davison replaces Kim Darby as Virginia Calderwood. Peter Strauss, Susan Blakely, Herbert Jefferson Jr., Van Johnson, Kay Lenz, Tim McIntire, Ray Milland, Dick Sargent and William Smith reprise their roles from the original series.
Rich Man, Poor Man Book IINeilson ratings saw an average of 21.6 million viewers for the season placing it 21st.[35]
Reception
Las Vegas and Aspen, playgrounds of the rich and famous and powerful, were two of the settings for the series. Filled with soap opera-like touches, it was far more melodramatic than the original and not as successful critically or in the ratings. The series maintained a popular following in the UK and Europe and was released on a 6-Disc DVD set by Universal-Playback on June 18, 2007. The US DVD set contained both the original mini-series and the weekly series and was released for the first time by A & E Home Video on September 28, 2010.
Gary Deeb of the Chicago Tribune wrote that ABC was taking a gamble with the series after Nick Nolte refused to appear in the sequel as Tom Jordache.[36]
Douglas M. Snauffer wrote in his book Prime Time Soap Operas that Rich Man, Poor Man Book II failed as a TV series.[37]
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