Little Women

Little Women is a 1978 American television miniseries directed by David Lowell Rich and written by Suzanne Clauser based on the 1868–69 two-volume novel of the same name by Louisa May Alcott. The cast includes Susan Dey, Meredith Baxter Birney, Ann Dusenberry, Eve Plumb, Dorothy McGuire, William Schallert, Greer Garson, Robert Young, Richard Gilliland, William Shatner and John de Lancie. The three-hour miniseries was produced by Universal Television and originally aired in two parts on NBC on October 2–3, 1978. A brief series followed in 1979, airing from February 8 to March 8, 1979. Eve Plumb was among the miniseries cast members who returned (although her character Beth had died in the miniseries, as she had in the original book), playing a cousin of the family called Lissa. Plot The miniseries chronicles the lives and loves of the four March sisters – Jo (Susan Dey), Meg (Meredith Baxter Birney), Amy (Ann Dusenberry) and Beth (Eve Plumb) – growing up in Concord, Massachusetts during the American Civil War. While their father leaves for battle, the sisters must rely on each other for strength in the face of tragedies both large and small. Part One In this particular adaptation, Jo works as narrator opening the story upon Christmas of 1861 in Concord, Massachusetts. She lives with three other sisters, their mother (Marmee), and their housemaid. She identifies them: Meg (16) is a governess, Jo (15) is an aspiring writer and hot-tempered, Beth (13) is timid and sweet and fond of playing the piano, while Amy (12) is the youngest with a predilection for art. Their father is fighting with the Union placing the Marches in a less well-off living situation than they had been in previously.