The tale begins neither in England nor America but opens in France under the ancien regime where Philippe Charboneau , the illegitimate son of the actress Marie Charboneau (Patricia Neal) is preparing to venture off into England to claim his inheritance. Philippe's mother is particularly insistent that Philippe get his due.

Patricia Neal plays the role of the domineering mother. A gifted screen actress, not abit past her prime, Ms Neal skillfully performed the role of the domineering mother without overpowering less skilled cast.

There's a glimpse of pre-revolutionary France, before the viewer is swept into the class struggles of 18th century England held in a stagnant vassalage by the hidebound ways of the landed elite. At the dawn of enlightenment there is not one Great Britain but two Englands: the England of the staid landed aristocracy and the England of intellectual ferment developing the doctrines of freedom.

Bastard (The Kent Family Chronicles #1)

Where does Philippe fit in?

According to Marie Charboneau, Philip belongs with the caste of his father. And Marie Charboneau has every intention of seeing her son join the ranks of the privileged elite. The problem is the father's wife and legitimate heirs do not wish the parvenue recognized.

Cast out by his father's family, young Phillipe and his mother take refuge in the city of London where they are taken in by Solomon Sholto, a worthy printer (Donald Pleasant).

Donald Pleasant plays persuasively the 18th century printer Solomon Sholto, the beacon of the rising power of an informed, educated mass. Regretfully, while a skilled performer, Pleasant never rose above bit parts in cheap horror films to the true acclaim he deserved.

The Empire may be the captive of its traditionalist aristocracy with its roots in the outmoded chivalric equestrian order and its support from the church but the city of London is in the throes of intellectual ferment. The concepts of democracy which will reach around the world are taking form. Philippe comes into contact with America's elder statesman Ben Franklin (Tom Bosley) who is pleading the case of the colonies to crown and Parliament.

Tom Bosley best known for his longstanding role as the ineffectual father in the banal sit-com Happy Days rose to the challenge of sagaciousness, especially when re-enacting Dr Franklin's air baths.

America has long pretended to be the offspring of the England brewing with the intellectual awakening of the Enlightenment, but how long has its elite, particularly in the 20th century yearned with the same tenacity as Marie Charboneau to join the betittled England. Even in adversity, Marie Charboneau clings to the dream that His Lordship will live up to the promise of recognizing young Philippe.

But the shot heard round the world hasn't been fired yet. Hounded by his father's family, Philippe and his mother flee aboard an America-bound ship captained by the tight mouthed New Englander Captain Caleb (Harry Morgan).

The voyage to the New World in flimsy wooden boats across turgid seas is a long arduous one. Though without experience at sea, Philippe takes up duties as a cabin boy to defray the costs of passage. When Marie Charboneau takes ill, she makes Philippe promise never to give up claim on his inheritance. Wisely after his mother's death Philippe takes Captain 's advice to change his name to one more American sounding and start afresh.

Best known as a leading man in such sit-coms as Pete and Gladys and Mash, Harry Morgan as Captain Caleb projects the air of authority and command of an 18th century ship master together with that signature American pragmatism: look for the most expeditious way out.

Philip Kent the American is born and faces an uncertain future in his adopted country. As the ship lands at Boston young Mr Kent learns that if London is in a state of intellectual ferment, the colonies are one step ahead seething with rebellion. The third stage of the bastard is set as Philip Kent falls under the spell of the radical Sam Adams (William Daniels).

Of fame in the musical 1776 and in the Adams family chronicles, William Daniels returns to play his signature role as a member of the Adams family, this time as Samuel Adams, John Adam's more radical cousin. Surely Mr Daniels has become a national treasure as the cinematic embodiment of America's leading family.

The Bastard was a best selling book, but the TV mini-series did not farewell. I don't think it aired a second time after its 1977 release. One critic said of the TV miniseries, "plenty of hoop skirts and hoopla, little of substance." I'm sure the critic didn't know how close he came to previous criticism of virtually every other Revolutionary War film.

The Rebels (The Kent Family Chronicles #2)

Jakes presents an interesting hypothesis about the origins of modern America: the bastard offspring of Britain and France. Certainly it might be said America was the offshoot of British and French colonial wars, but not a byproduct of specific interbreeding. French immigration was not significant enough to have created a blended inheritance, neither British nor French but distinctively American instead. Jakes also offers the interesting observation that to be American one must turn one's back on the past however good or bad and look to the future. America as a state of mind was virtually a tenet of faith in this country until recent years.

One problem with Part III of the Bastard is that it tracks the ground already covered in Esther Forbes classic Johnny Tremain. Both are set in Boston; Both Johnny Tremain and Philip Kent are of French extraction; both gain access to the Revolutionary elite in almost the same accidental manner. Part III fails the test of originality.

Each colony except Conneticut deposed the British by violence or threat of violence. It would have been nice if the story of the Revolution in a province other than Massachusetts had been told just for the purpose of distinguishing the tale from the earlier work Johnny Tremaine. But the Revolution enjoys such little attention from the silver and the small screen that John Jakes work even with this major flaw is a good primer on the rift that erupted into armed revolt.

THE REBELS additional cast (partial)
	Jim Backus .... John Hancock Richard Basehart .... Duke of Kentland Joan Blondell .... Mrs. Brumple Tom Bosley .... Benjamin Franklin William Daniels .... Samuel Adams		Macdonald Carey .... Dr. Church Kim Cattrall .... Anne Kent Rory Calhoun .... Breen John Chappell (I) .... Henry Knox Anne Francis (I) .... Mrs. Harris Peter Graves (I) .... George Washington

The Rebels, the sequel, carries Philip Kent into the American Revolution. Wounded and returned to Boston as hero, Kent marries his sweetheart and even effects a reconcilliation of a type with his dysfunctional English father who expresses pride in his son's accomplishments (in the anti-British rebel cause) despite all the obstacles the family puts in Kent's way.

Jakes may have poetically described the love-hate relationship which would grow between Britain and her rambunctious former colonies and blossom into the 20th century dysfunctionality we live with today.

If The Bastard enjoyed a limited audience on air; Rebels went without much fanfare. Reviewers said of both plenty of hoop skirts and hooplas, little of substance. They were very wrong. Even with the limitations of Part III of The Bastard, the revolutionary agitation in Massachusetts, the story of the origins of the country is told with great insight into the character and conflicts of the time.

Both books, Rebel and Bastard, despite the poor following of the TV movies were best sellers.

Philip Kent will become the founder of a great line whose tale is told in the serial novel: The Kent Family Chronicles.

John Jakes