Oct 5, 2026 · 49 min · 24 segments
Michael Douglas is one of the most recognizable actors of our time, but in 1987, many still knew him as Kirk Douglas's son. That year, he starred in *Fatal Attraction* and *Wall Street*, and his role…
Michael DouglasGuest
Tonya MosleyHost
David Bianculli
John Steinbeck's East of Eden, his multi-generational exploration of family, fate, and free will, was published in 1952.
It was adapted into a movie three years later and into a TV miniseries in 1981.
As John Steinbeck wrote it, East of Eden is a sprawling, ambitious, provocative novel.
Its primary characters include an Irish immigrant family and a Chinese loner, several generations of feuding brothers, and an evil and manipulative young girl who matures into an even more evil and manipulative woman.
And through it all runs the author's central question: Are we predestined to a particular fate and disposition, or can free will overcome? The movie version, produced in the 1950s and adapted with Steinbeck's input, chopped off the first three-quarters of the book.
It opens with Cal Trask, one of two very dissimilar brothers, hunting down his mother, who abandoned the family right after her twins were born.
Here's his first conversation with his mother, played by Jo Van Fleet, who won an Oscar for her role.
The three-part ABC miniseries used the extra time to include more characters and stories neglected in the film.
The Hamiltons, the Irish family, are given lots of room to develop, as is Lee, the Chinese caretaker, who is much wiser than he originally appears.
Most of all, that miniseries brought the character of Cathy to dead center.
As played by Jane Seymour, she was a force of nature and of pure evil, who, after giving birth to twins she didn't want, would shoot her husband and abandon her babies.
John Steinbeck's East of Eden, his multi-generational exploration of family, fate, and free will, was published in 1952.
It was adapted into a movie three years later and into a TV miniseries in 1981.
As John Steinbeck wrote it, East of Eden is a sprawling, ambitious, provocative novel.
Its primary characters include an Irish immigrant family and a Chinese loner, several generations of feuding brothers, and an evil and manipulative young girl who matures into an even more evil and manipulative woman.
And through it all runs the author's central question: Are we predestined to a particular fate and disposition, or can free will overcome? The movie version, produced in the 1950s and adapted with Steinbeck's input, chopped off the first three-quarters of the book.
It opens with Cal Trask, one of two very dissimilar brothers, hunting down his mother, who abandoned the family right after her twins were born.
Here's his first conversation with his mother, played by Jo Van Fleet, who won an Oscar for her role.
The three-part ABC miniseries used the extra time to include more characters and stories neglected in the film.
The Hamiltons, the Irish family, are given lots of room to develop, as is Lee, the Chinese caretaker, who is much wiser than he originally appears.
Most of all, that miniseries brought the character of Cathy to dead center.
As played by Jane Seymour, she was a force of nature and of pure evil, who, after giving birth to twins she didn't want, would shoot her husband and abandon her babies.
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