The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter is a 1979 four-episode miniseries produced by WGBH, adapting Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel for television and airing from March 3 to March 24, 1979. Each installment runs sixty minutes. Part 2 earned the 1979 Emmy Award for Outstanding Video Tape Editing for a Limited Series or Special, awarded to film editors Ken Denisoff, Janet McFadden, and Tucker Wiard. In an era when most literary programs originated in the United Kingdom, Boston public television station WGBH produced a homegrown classic, delivering an epic interpretation of Puritan America in its quest for a soul. Hester Prynne overcomes the stigma of adultery and emerges as the first great heroine in American literature. Hawthorne's themes of sin, social hypocrisy, and community repression continue to resonate in American society. Meg Foster brings quiet strength to Hester, the adulteress condemned to wear a scarlet A for life. Opposite her, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, played by John Heard, succumbs to private torment with convincing intensity. Kevin Conway completes the grim triangle as the enigmatic and maleficent Roger Chillingworth. The costumes and scenery are restrained to keep the focus on dialogue as each character grapples with the meaning of sin, forgiveness, and redemption.