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Q: I remember an excellent documentary series called "The Kennedy Women" from the '90s. I have been looking for it everywhere, but no one (I have even written the John F. Kennedy Library) seems to know it existed. Would you be able to tell me anything abo

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Author: 
Adam Thomlison / TV Media

It seems like maybe I can't. I can't find anything that fits your whole description of the series — only parts of it.

For example, the Hallmark/NBC telefilm "Jackie, Ethel, Joan: The Kennedy Women" aired in 2001. That's the closest title match that seems to exist. However, it was not a documentary, but rather a lush dramatization.

It featured "Crossing Jordan" star Jill Hennessy as Jackie Kennedy and film actress and former "Picket Fences" star Lauren Holly as Ethel. Joan was played by Leslie Stefanson, an actress who seemed on her way up at the time, having appeared in the blockbuster "Unbreakable" the previous year, but who never quite caught on.

The film was released in some regions under the name "Jackie, Ethel, Joan: The Women of Camelot," which was the title of the book on which it was based.

There was a different book, released in 1994, called "The Kennedy Women: The Saga of an American Family," by Kennedy-family expert Laurence Leamer. That fits your time frame, but there's no sign of it ever having been made into a documentary.

PBS's "American Experience" series aired a documentary miniseries simply titled "The Kennedys" in 1994, which means it has the right film style and time frame, but it didn't focus exclusively on the women of the family.

Sadly, it's possible your series has been lost in the abundance of Kennedy titles. It seems as if every five- and 10-year anniversary of the death of the family's most famous son, John F. Kennedy, brings with it a new documentary on some aspect of that great American dynasty.

 

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