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Before Patrick Swayze started “Dirty Dancing” with “Ghosts” he dug into the trenches fighting a nasty battle for humanity. No, it wasn’t during the Vietnam War instead it was the mini-series war. Historical fiction was all the rage during the 70’s and 80’s (and till is to some extent) and John Jakes’ novels The Bastard and North and South tromped onto the TV stage with their epic stories set during difficult times in America’s past. “North and South” became TV’s politically correct answer to “Gone with the Wind”. The epic tone of the series, sweep and majestic vistas made “North and South” an immediate hit so there were two sequels made. George Hazard and Orry Main meet at West Point but both from very different worlds. Hazard comes from a wealthy Pennsylvania steel family and Main harks from a Southern Plantation. The two fight side-by-side in Mexico where Hazard saves Main. Later, they become business partners and members of their families meet, fall in love and things look promising until the Civil War breaks out and each man decides to serve in opposing armies. The second part features some of the characters from the first while the third made nearly ten years after the first mini-series features a variety of roles recast with only two major actors (Genie Francis and Jonathan Frakes) returning to their original roles and then in a limited capacity. Contrary to rumors, this is the uncut epic as it originally aired on network TV. Nothing has been added, altered or deleted from the original drama as near as I can tell when comparing it to the original VHS tapes. ---

We get a full length documentary covering the creation of the mini-series from conception (as a novel by John Jakes) to the final production itself. The documentary focuses mostly on parts 1 & 2. That’s a good thing as the horrible part 3 is generally disliked by fans and, if it hadn’t been released as this set, would probably have no buyers at all. The documentary features both vintage and new interviews with author John Jakes and David Wolper discussing both the original novel and the production of the mini-series; “The Hazard Family”where James Read and Kirstie Alley talk about their roles in the mini-series; “The Orry’s” features Patrick Swayze discussing his role and how it helped him break through to stardom. There’s also a featurette as part of the documentary on the production itself and the difficulties and challenges of recreating the Civil War era. Production crew and designers discuss the difficulty in creating authentic looking clothing, props and sets from the era as well. Finally the last part “Memories” features thoughts about the production twenty years on from the production crew and many members of the cast. Warner Home Video has done a terrific job and keeps improving with their boxed sets. ---