Overview
When the President and Speaker of the House are killed in a building collapse, and the Vice-President declines the office due to age and ill-health, Senate President pro tempore Douglas Dilman (James Earl Jones) suddenly becomes the first black man to occupy the Oval Office. The events from that day to the next election when he must decide if he will actually run challenge his skills as a politician and leader.
Cast
- James Earl Jones as Douglass Dilman
- Martin Balsam as Jim Talley
- Burgess Meredith as Senator Watson
- Lew Ayres as Noah Calvin
- William Windom as Arthur Eaton
- Barbara Rush as Kay Eaton
- Georg Stanford Brown as Robert Wheeler
- Janet MacLachlan as Wanda
- Martin E. Brooks as Wheeler's Lawyer
- Simon Scott as Hugh Gaynor