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In Sunday’s opening episode of the eight-part miniseries, “The Kennedys,” Joe Kennedy Sr. is talking to his oldest son Joe Jr. about trying to stay out of the World War II fight with Adolph Hitler.

“If I could write Hitler a check to call the whole thing off, I’d do it,” says Joe Sr.

One imagines that the late patriarch of America’s royal political family also would have opened his checkbook to stop the broadcast of “The Kennedys.”

After all, it “only” took $7 million for the little-watched and little-known cable channel Reelz to get the rights to the eight-hour series after The History Channel decided to walk away from the $25 million production because it supposedly “wasn’t a good fit.”

Joe. Sr.’s remark to the son that he wanted to be president followed a brief conversation between Joe Jr. and the son who eventually became president, John F. Kennedy, about daddy’s views of Hitler.

JFK wasn’t happy about what he perceived as stretching the truth and downplaying Hitler’s evil goals.

“It is the truth,” replies Joe Jr.

“It is not,” counters JFK. “It is his opinion.”

Of course, the same thing can be said about many of the scenes in “The Kennedys,” which is being produced by Joel Surnow of “24” fame.

It is the opinion of various Kennedy watchers that JFK’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, and his niece, Maria Shriver, pressured The History Channel to drop the series partly because Surnow is a known conservative politically. However, the primary script writer, Stephen Kronish, reportedly has claimed to be a liberal.

As usual, such reported interference has led to a massive amount of publicity that may even lead to cable subscribers to realize the Reelz Channel exists.

How little-known is the channel? The Buffalo News lists about 60 cable and satellite channels each Sunday in TV Topics. Reelz isn’t among them.

That assures the audience will be minimal. But it could have a strong afterlife on DVDs and other alternative avenues after it runs.

Caroline Kennedy’s and Maria Shriver’s presumed gripes are that “The Kennedys” isn’t historically accurate, that conversations between the principals are imagined and manufactured and viewers of The History Channel might actually think they are watching history.

By definition, docudramas imagine history so those complaints are legitimate. One can’t imagine that Surnow or his writers can verify the dialogue used when President Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy call dad to the oval office and ask him if he made an election deal with mobster Sam Giancana. Or they can verify that at one point Daddy Kennedy offered daughter-in-law Jackie $1 million to stay with her philandering husband rather than kill his political career.

In docudramas, viewers should realize that writers have the license to create conversations but that the situations were real. In a sense, one almost thinks that a historian should review “The Kennedys” rather than a TV critic.

“The Kennedys” isn’t the first TV movie or miniseries docudrama that has led to controversy. I’ve been at several press conferences when critics and producers argued over what is real and what was fictionalized in Kennedy productions.

The $25 million question for most viewers isn’t whether what they are watching is history but whether it is well-acted, well-written and entertaining.

As far as the writing, some of the dialogue in early episodes is unintentionally funny but it improves as time goes on.

The answer on the acting count is overwhelmingly yes.

The acting makes an otherwise routine miniseries worth watching, bringing the politics and style of the 1960s to life. That isn’t an easy thing to do since so many of us still have the images of the real-life Kennedys permanently etched in our brains.

British actor Tom Wilkinson is brilliant as Joe Sr., the patriarch who made JFK his third choice to be president after he blew his own chance and eldest son Joe died in World War II. Wilkinson creates a portrait of a morally and ethically-challenged man who drove his sons hard and would do anything to get JFK elected.

Greg Kinnear may be the biggest surprise playing JFK. Though he doesn’t have the late President’s height or charisma, Kinnear captures his wit and his reasonableness and does very well with a part that could easily turn into caricature.

Barry Pepper almost steals the series as Robert F. Kennedy, the President’s right-hand man and the one principled Kennedy man who lived family values.

Diana Hardcastle captures matriarch Rose Kennedy’s faith and makes Rose more than just one-note by miniseries end.

Finally, Katie Holmes (see above) is exceptional as Jacqueline Kennedy, capturing her beauty, style and vulnerability.

Surnow’s production does have some distracting elements. The series jumps all over the place in time, primarily because of repeated flashbacks. The actor playing JFK before Kinnear comes aboard doesn’t have the PT 109 commander’s stature and becomes a major distraction. And some real historical footage is mixed in with fictional footage, which can be a little confusing to young viewers who may view the whole vehicle as history.  

In a sense, “The Kennedys” is two miniseries in one. The unflattering first half is more focused on the 1960 election and several unflattering gossipy issues that have long been reported or rumored – the infidelities, the election stealing, the mob associations, the drugs that JFK needed from a shady Dr. Feelgood to deal with severe back problems.

The second half is more flattering and more focused on the historical issues and decisions that JFK had to make as he grew as president in his short time in office – including James Meredith’s entrance into a previously all-white University of Mississippi, the Bay of Pigs disaster and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Additionally, it deals with the assassinations of JFK and RFK, smartly keeping the violence off camera.

The historical issues are much more compelling viewing than the old gossip, which raises suspicions about JFK’s war hero status, whether his relationship with Marilyn Monroe led to her suicide and whether the mob was behind his assassination.

After raising those issues, the series conservatively asks the audience to make its own conclusions about all those questions and about what is the truth and what is opinion.

“The Kennedys” has its strongest emotional impact in the final two episodes. The next-to-last episode that deals with JFK’s assassination includes a poignant imagined scene in which the philandering president tells Jackie he will be the man she deserves hours before he is killed.

The final episode that deals with RFK’s assassination ends so movingly that it may even lead some of the surviving members of the Kennedy family to forgive the producers for taking so much creative license with their lives. But I wouldn’t bet $7 million on that.   

Rating: 2 and a half stars out of 4

pergament@msn.com

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