White House Plumbers (miniseries)

White House Plumbers is an American satirical political drama television miniseries created and written by Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck and directed by David Mandel, based on the 2007 book Integrity by Egil Krogh and Matthew Krogh. The series stars Woody Harrelson, Justin Theroux, Domhnall Gleeson, Kiernan Shipka, and Lena Headey and it premiered on HBO on May 1, 2023.

WWW hbo.com/white-house-plumb...

Premise

Watergate masterminds and President Richard Nixon's political operatives E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy are part of the "White House Plumbers". Charged with plugging press leaks by any means necessary, they accidentally overturned the Presidency they were trying to protect.

Cast and characters

Main

Woody Harrelson as E. Howard Hunt: A CIA officer who, as part of the White House Plumbers, was tasked with identifying the sources of national security leaks following the publication of the Pentagon Papers in 1971. Hunt was convicted of burglary, conspiracy, and wiretapping and served 33 months in prison for the charges.
Justin Theroux as G. Gordon Liddy: A White House lawyer who worked alongside Hunt to direct the burglary of the DNC headquarters in the Watergate building. Liddy was convicted of burglary, conspiracy, and refusing to testify to the Senate committee investigating Watergate. He served nearly 52 months in federal prison for the charges.
Lena Headey as Dorothy Hunt: wife of E. Howard Hunt.
Domhnall Gleeson as John Dean: An attorney who served as Nixon's White House Counsel from July 1970 until April 1973. Following his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal, he testified to Congress as a witness and pled guilty to a single felony in exchange for a reduced sentence if he would serve as a key witness for the Watergate prosecution. Dean was disbarred as a lawyer following his guilty plea.
Judy Greer as Fran Liddy: wife of G. Gordon Liddy
Kim Coates as Frank Sturgis
Gary Cole as Mark Felt
Toby Huss as James W. McCord Jr.
Liam James as Saint John Hunt
Tony Plana as Eugenio "Musculito" Martínez
Yul Vazquez as Bernard "Macho" Barker
Zoe Levin as Lisa Hunt
Nelson Ascencio as Virgilio "Villo" Gonzalez
Rich Sommer as Egil "Bud" Krogh
Tre Ryder as David Hunt
Alexis Valdés as Felipe De Diego
Ike Barinholtz as Jeb Stuart Magruder
John Carroll Lynch as John N. Mitchell
Joel Murray as Don
Emily Pendergast as Edwina
Kathleen Turner as Dita Beard
Zak Orth as Alfred C. Baldwin III
Kiernan Shipka as Kevan Hunt
Marc Menchaca as Carl Shoffler
David Pasquesi as James Jesus Angleton
Eddie K. Robinson as Frank Wills
F. Murray Abraham as Judge John Sirica
Corbin Bernsen as Richard Kleindienst
David Krumholtz as William Bittman
Neil Casey as Douglas Caddy
Prema Cruz as Michele Clark
Peter Serafinowicz as William F. Buckley Jr.
Steven Bauer as Dr. Manuel Artime
Annie Fitzgerald
Peter Grosz as Earl Silbert
Robert Smigel as Inmate Friedman

Guest

Additionally, Robert Redford makes an uncredited voice-only cameo as Bob Woodward, reprising his role from All the President's Men.

Production

Development

On December 4, 2019, it was announced that HBO had ordered the five-episode limited series created and executive produced by Alex Gregory, Peter Huyck, David Mandel, Frank Rich, Ruben Fleischer, and David Bernad. Gregory and Huyck were attached to write the miniseries with Mandel directing all episodes. The series premiered on May 1, 2023.

Casting

Alongside the series order announcement, Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux were set to star in lead roles as well as executive produce. In April 2021, Domhnall Gleeson and Lena Headey were cast in main roles. In May 2021, Kiernan Shipka, Ike Barinholtz, Yul Vazquez, David Krumholtz, Rich Sommer, Kim Coates, and Liam James joined the cast in starring roles while Nelson Ascencio, Gary Cole, Toby Huss, Zoe Levin, John Carroll Lynch, Zak Orth, and Tony Plana were cast in undisclosed capacities. In the same month, the following week, Kathleen Turner joined the main cast. In June 2021, Judy Greer was cast in a main role. In July 2021, Corbin Bernsen and Alexis Valdés were cast in undisclosed capacities.

Filming

The series began principal photography on May 3, 2021, and ended on October 21, 2021. Filming took place in Poughkeepsie, New York on Zack's Way, New York City, Albany, New York, Washington, D.C., Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands, Beverly Hills, California, and Redondo Beach, California. On August 5, 2021, production was suspended after an audio recording reportedly captured Mandel berating and threatening the head of props, and the props department walked off the set. Filming resumed on August 12 with additional protocols following the incident.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds a 70% approval rating, with an average rating of 6.1/10, based on 47 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "White House Plumbers gets clogged up by its overstuffed adherence to real history, but with actors this appealing and material that truly is stranger than fiction, it flushes down easy enough." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, has assigned a score of 62 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".