The last of John Jakes' "Kent Family Chronicles" to be adapted for television, "The Seekers" is more faithful to its source material than "The Rebels" was though it makes two critical changes at the end. The first part is devoted to Randolph Mantooth's Abraham Kent and his tragic attempts to set himself up in the Western territory that ends in disaster and death, forcing him to return to Boston where his life ends in failure and misery. Then the second part of the drama focuses on his young son Jared and Jared's half-cousin Amanda.
One key flaw is that after experiencing the youthful Andrew Stevens as Philip Kent in "The Bastard" and "The Rebels" it is utterly impossible to think that just a decade after the events of those novels, Philip Kent is now being played by Martin Milner! (of course "The Rebels" and "The Seekers" were being shot simultaneously so actors couldn't appear in both productions, but even so they should have thought this point out better). Even harder to believe that Pete Malloy is playing Johnny Gage's father. But this is all part of how these big event miniseries worked following the success of "Roots." Stuff as many familiar names from series TV as you can and mix in some younger unknown Universal contract players as well. That accounts for two unknowns taking center stage in the latter part in Timothy Patrick Murphy as Jared, and Sarah Rush as Amanda. Sarah is no relation to Barbara Rush as an earlier reviewer asked (Though she is a distant cousin of James Dean). Sarah was a contract player who had appeared in a number of episodes of "Battlestar Galactica" as Corporal Rigel, the Bridge crewman who would call out, "Enemy closing, fifty microns" etc. "The Seekers' represented her one opportunity at a leading role, and she does a wonderful job. The platonic chemistry with Murphy's Jared is well-done and never approaches the forbidden territory that even distant blood relations shouldn't engage in (even if it was only half-cousins). And the hearttugging ending, a necessary change from the novel which ended on a downer note of Jared and Amanda still separated and not knowing where the other was (which would be resolved in the fourth novel "The Furies" which was never adapted for TV) is where Sarah really gets to shine when she makes a fateful decision on where her destiny in life lies. Those like me who enjoyed her presence on Galactica (and who still enjoy her today in all the Convention appearances she's done as well as recently reprising her role as Rigel in an audio drama with other Galactica cast members) can really appreciate what she does here. Unfortunately, "The Seekers" didn't lead to similar opportunities for Sarah and tiring of the Hollywood lifestyle she returned East after her contract expired and appeared largely in theatrical productions afterwards.
