Airtime for controversial 'Kennedys'

By Bill Keveney, USA TODAY

This weekend, viewers can judge for themselves: The controversial eight-hour miniseries The Kennedys, starring Greg Kinnear as JFK and Katie Holmes as the first lady, premieres Sunday on Reelz (8 ET/PT).

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  Reelz Channel via AP

  Greg Kinnear portrays the 35th president, John F. Kennedy.

Reelz Channel via AP

Greg Kinnear portrays the 35th president, John F. Kennedy.

Despite attacks on the filmmakers' angles, it's neither a love letter nor a hatchet job but an honest story, says writer Stephen Kronish. "We wanted to show these people as personalities, as characters, who had great gifts and flaws. We wanted (to make) as realistic a portrayal of the family and its dynamic as we could."

Before filming had even started, a Kennedy adviser and some historians were criticizing the accuracy of an early script. A website urged readers to protest what it called "right-wing character assassination" to the History Channel, which had commissioned the project. In January, History dropped it, saying in a statement, "After viewing the final product in its totality, we have concluded this dramatic interpretation is not a fit for the History brand." Little-known Reelz eventually picked it up.

"My personal feeling is that when one sees all eight hours, one will come away with a greater understanding as to who these people were," Kronish says. "I do think that the overall impression will be a positive one, because I think it should be. But we didn't try to cook the books to make it come out" one way or another.

The Kennedys charts the course from John F. Kennedy's election as president in 1960, with explanatory flashbacks, to brother Robert's (Barry Pepper) assassination in 1968. Much of the focus is on the relationship between patriarch Joseph (Tom Wilkinson) and his sons. What may jump out at viewers are scenes describing JFK's infidelity, including an affair with Marilyn Monroe, his use of pain-killing drugs and his father's speaking to a Mafia kingpin about his son's campaign.

Kronish and executive producer Joel Surnow (who worked together on 24) dispute complaints of inaccuracy. They say that the miniseries is drawn from reputable historians and reliable references and that a historian assigned by the History Channel signed off on their work. "We were scrutinized, vetted, put under the microscope basically on a word-by-word basis. There was so much level of detail that was required of us before they approved the scripts," Surnow says.

They acknowledge the project is historical drama, not documentary, that some characters are composites, and that there is no record of many private conversations, but that they are true to the known facts.

Surnow says his reputation as a conservative may have thrown up a red flag. "I always felt because of my known political leanings ... it might cause a problem somewhere down the line," Surnow says. "Camelot still is a revered and a treasured image for many people."

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