Anybody here remember this NBC miniseries from 1979? Based on the memoirs of Lillian Rogers Park, a maid at the White House - she and her mother before her served through fifty years of histiry covering the administrations of William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Totalling Nine Hours of television, it was stirringly written and lavishly produced with a cast that included Olivia Cole, Leslie Uggams, Louis Gosset Jr., Leslie Nielsen, Cloris Leachman, Paul Winfield, Julie Harris, Victor Buono, Robert Vaughn, Kin Hunter, Celeste Holm, George Kennedy, Ed Flanders, Lee Grant, Harry Morgan, Barbara Barrie...really nice score as I remember. Riveting stuff, the events that took place within the administrations, their families and the families of their personnel and White House staffs through generations, wars, and social changes.

I was thirteen, me and my mom were glued to the set through the whole week it played.

I just ran across this on the IMDb message boards, pertaining to the a dvd release:

I've spoken to Don Klees, US Division rep. for Acorn Media. He says that they are aiming for a November 2005 release.

You got my hopes up for a few seconds, Dreamer, I thought somebody was making The Jeff Gannon Story.....of course, Backdoor to the Whitehouse might be a more appropriate title....

I remember this mainly for the title and wondering what the heck "Backstairs" meant. Downstairs, upstairs I know; Backstage, ok. But Backstairs was alien to my young ears at the time.
And frankly, it still is.
I understand that the title refers to the actual servant stairs at the Whitehouse, but it still sounds odd to me... maybe if it were separated into two words it would at least look like it made sense.
Wow... the minutia I'll respond with to the most prosaic of questions astonishes me sometimes.
AT

At least somebody else actually remembers it! Now you mention, it was the first time I heard the word too!

Prestigious tv production with a fresh insight into important events in America's history, with a great cast, and this is the response it gets even from the fogeys who ought to have seen it. But I bet there'd be half a dozen happy at least if I'd said "Hey, Killdozer is coming to dvd"...:lol:

It aired opposite the miniseries "How the West Was Won" on another channel. Maybe some of the guys here watched that instead.

Killdozer is coming?!!!!!!

Beleive it. I heard it from Jeff Gannon.

I remember liking it at the time, but I wonder how well it will hold up. I'll certainly check it out come November.

I remember catching pieces of it on Armed Forces Television at the time. My cousin is the head librarian at our library, she keeps up on these releases and plans on stocking this one. When it comes in I plan on checking it out.

Remember, but don't remember actually watching it...

When I was a kid a friend's family lived in a house that was built by a coal baron - their house had a back set of stairs...interesting, huh? :)

Yep, put my name down on Amazon's reserve list for Killdozer. WOO-HOO!!!.. :jest:

I hadn't heard of this miniseries before. I'll keep my eye out for it because it sounds interesting.

José