Maybe only other children who have lived in the White House will fully appreciate The Family Channel's story of Abraham Lincoln and his third son, Thomas "Tad" Lincoln.
But many youngsters can identify with the mischievous boy who could bring a smile to a busy father's face.
That the burdens of this father were almost beyond comprehension makes "Tad" especially touching, airing as it does at 7 on Sunday, the 186th anniversary of Lincoln's birthday. The show repeats Saturday and Feb. 20, 25 and 26. Kris Kristofferson portrays the Great Emancipator, Bug Hall plays Tad, Jane Curtin is Mary Todd Lincoln, and Kieran Mulroney is Robert, the only Lincoln son to survive past his teens. Kristofferson, father of eight children ranging from 33 years to six months, said he immersed himself in Lincolniana to prepare for the role, reading Gore Vidal and Carl Sandburg and watching tapes of Ken Burns's "The Civil War." "That was one of the blessings, getting to do research about it," he said. "I got to read up a lot -- I'm still reading. That Ken Burns series was such a great way to feel the flavor of the times. I've seen them several times; I see them over and over. "So many things come to you: the notion that we might have killed off the best and the brightest of Americans. The man had such integrity and true humility and dedication to the principle of liberty and justice for everyone. Like Christ, he talked in parables all the time and illustrated his points with little anecdotes. And I was struck so much by the letters from different soldiers, how eloquent they were. I felt the same thing when I was looking at old speeches of Kennedy's." "Tad" was filmed in and around Richmond, Petersburg and Midlothian, Va. Kristofferson, in Richmond to attend a reception for the movie, called on the day Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy died. "Rose Kennedy and Mary Todd Lincoln were women who were particularly unlucky," he said. "Mary buried three children. These are things that devastate a human being. In my own experience, I've never seen anything that can destroy a person more than losing a child -- it's not the natural order of things. People are never the same. And to have them blown away in your presence . . . "I know that there's a tendency to portray her as a lunatic, because she ended up in an asylum, but I felt that Mary was entitled to the benefit of the doubt. There had to be a powerful, strong love between them to survive the blows that they had." The Lincolns suffered the death of their 4-year-old son Eddie in Springfield, Ill., before they left for Washington, D.C. Son Willie, 12, died of rheumatic fever at the White House in 1862. That year also saw the death of a family friend and young Union officer, Elmer Ellsworth, who was shot in Alexandria while he was trying to remove a rebel flag from a rooftop. Son Robert, a Harvard student, eventually served in the Union Army, although his mother feared she'd lose him too. Mulroney, who is from Alexandria, "looks not unlike my oldest son, a little taller and thinner than I am," said Kristofferson. "It was a hard role to play, since Robert is complaining in almost every scene." Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre during the play "Our American Cousin," while Tad was at the National Theatre enjoying "Aladdin." In 1871, at 18, having returned from a trip to Europe with his mother, Tad caught a cold and died. He is buried next to Lincoln in Springfield. Mary died in 1882 at 64. Robert became an Illinois state delegate in 1880, and lived to age 82. He died in 1929. In frock coat and stovepipe hat, Kristofferson looks remarkably like Honest Abe, down to the mole on his right cheek, although he looks healthier than the beleaguered president does in photos. Kristofferson, who is six feet tall, said he and Curtin were required in one scene to come sweeping down a staircase. At the foot of the stairs were extras playing White House staffers. "I had to wear these great big Pee-wee Herman platform shoes and it was very difficult walking down the stairs and then not stepping on the ladies' skirts. I look down and there's a little black kid who was playing one of the servants, and he's standing there staring at me. And he whispers something to this woman next to him, and she laughs." He found out later that awestruck boy had asked her: "How'd they make that president come alive?" CAPTION: Abraham Lincoln and his 7-year-old son Tad. CAPTION: Kris Kristofferson and Bug Hall.
