River Oaks 77019
Will Oscar bleed Bobby dry? Did Lynn betray her daddy for money? Was Doug pals with an alien? Has Fergie given Steve the heave-ho? Will the Wyatt-Sakowitz feud blow Houston society apart? It could be this summer’s hottest miniseries.
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Flashback to the moment when everything starts going sour for Robert. This is a chance to do some sexy stuff, like when, in 1978, wife Pam falls in love with another man, Tony Bryan—the husband of another rich Houstonian, Josephine Abercrombie. Next: wiretapping, messy divorce, the works. Bernard dies in 1981, leaving Robert without that all-important moral compass. Then oil prices start to tumble; nobody needs this year’s YSL for the unemployment line. Mexico devalues the peso—adios, rich Mexican shoppers. Even worse, the big New York chains that came into Sakowitz territory during the boom have forced the store into an expand-or-die mode. Honoring his father’s dream, Robert has built stores all over the Southwest by now, thinking—like a true Texan—that the hard times can’t last. But they do. Take a look at the store racks, Mr. S! Very skimpy! Robert can’t get vendors to give him the goods ’cause he ain’t payin’! Still, Robert is an optimist, like all our Lone Star stars. Sakowitz’s 1983 Ultimate Gift is a $10,000 mink teddy bear. Nobody buys.
Let’s face it: When Robert’s ceiling falls in, it caves. In a feud with another branch of the family, Robert loses a strip of land at the Post Oak store site, and a developer puts up a Châteaus-R-Us-style shopping center. Robert quietly buys the sewer rights to the Post Oak property from the city, signing his name as the owner of the land when he really isn’t. This way he can control development on the site and build the hotel-office-and-retail empire of his dreams. Someday. When things get better.
Oscar, who has come through the bust richer than ever, has been watching all this, and he doesn’t like it. He thinks Robert’s living awfully high for somebody who’s making $200,000 a year. Plus, Oscar’s got a financial stake here. He guaranteed a Sakowitz debt back in 1974, as a favor to Robert and Bernard, and is still on the hook for more than $1 million. Now he wonders if he’s ever going to see that money again, especially when banker friends start telling him the company is in big trouble. He has this idea about his brother-in-law: The good deals fall in Robert’s pocket, while the bad deals fall in the store’s.
Naturally, Oscar’s suspicions lead to trouble at home. Whenever Lynn comes home from a Sakowitz board meeting, Oscar gives her the third degree, even though he knows that Lynn has no head for business. It gets to the point where she walks out of the room whenever he brings up the subject—Lynn can’t stand being put in the middle, between her husband and her brother. Then she just quits talking about the board meetings completely. But Oscar fixes that by getting one of his high-powered attorneys, snarling, silver-haired Tom McDade, to start going to the meetings with her. It isn’t long before Robert gets a letter from Oscar. Oscar wants to see the Sakowitz books.
Robert’s answer to Oscar could be “Get in line.” He’s spending all his time making frantic phone calls to save the company from sinking. But nothing works. By August 1985, Robert is filing for Chapter 11. Time to reorganize, pull in. We see Sakowitz stores closing in Midland, Tulsa, Amarillo, and Dallas.
Lynn and Oscar aren’t exactly in mourning over the bankruptcy. By now, Lynn has rocketed into the social stratosphere, serving fried chicken to the jet set in Monaco, hosting the hoity-toity Bal de la Rose for her pal Princess Grace. While Robert is fighting for his life, Lynn is having one of her big birthday parties in Cap-Ferrat. A lot of foreshadowing here. This party’s got an Indian theme—India Indian, not American Indian. Lynn wears a turban, designed by Karl Lagerfeld, with a glittering emerald clasp. And who’s that behind the Aga Kahn? It’s Oscar, in a white shirt and white pants. Focus on that gold lamé sash. What’s hanging on it? An Indian dagger. Bobby, look out!
But Bobby doesn’t see it. He’s too busy—and not just with the store. One night, he hits a charity benefit and runs into his nephew Steve and Steve’s date, 26-year-old Laura Howell Harris, who just happens to be the second girl of his dreams. She’s not from a rich family—she comes from Deer Park, a working-class suburb—so what happens next is like another fairy tale.
The next day, Robert calls Steve: “Are you dating her seriously?” Steve: “No, she’s just a real good friend.” Robert: “Do you mind if I take her out?” Steve: “No.” The next thing you know, Robert and Laura Sakowitz are moving into a $1.2 million mansion on River Oaks Boulevard, just a few blocks down from Lynn and Oscar.
There’s only one problem: Oscar can count. He figures if Robert can afford a $1.2 million mansion on River Oaks Boulevard, Robert should have been able to pay him the $1.2 million outstanding on that loan. Uh-uh, Robert says, that’s corporate debt. (Flashback: Oscar is saying, “The good deals always fall in Robert’s pocket … ”)
By now, Oscar has also seen the bankruptcy papers, where Robert did take a salary cut from $200,000 to $120,000—but had the company pay for all kinds of “reasonable and necessary business expenses,” including “domestic help,” “landscape maintenance,” and “travel” for Laura. You see Oscar’s face in close-up here, and you know what he is going to do. Lynn’s voice is protesting in the background, but Oscar is going to get his money back or else. Flash-forward to Robert, on the witness stand. Berg says to him, “The business is gone. When you think of your father, do you feel you betrayed him?” Robert’s answer: “No.” And you know what? He probably believes it too.
THE GUNFIGHTER AND THE SHERIFF
Wednesday Night
Open in the courtroom. Douglas is on the stand. This is a big moment—Douglas’ chance to prove that he’s the straight arrow going up against his big bad uncle and, more important, that he’s acting on his own. He’s not just a stand-in for his big bad dad. How did Douglas get into this case? The answer lies back in time. “I guess I had several surrogate fathers,” he says on the stand.
Cut to 1987. Lynn has had it. Robert’s pulling her one way, and Oscar’s pulling her another. Her own mother has taken Robert’s side, so Lynn has come up with a plan. She’s going to give her share of Bernard’s inheritance to her sons early—like now—and put Douglas, the eldest and a lawyer, in charge. He can go to those shareholders’ meetings, he can report to Oscar, he can decide if Robert has cleaned out the cookie jar. There they are, in this Texas-size villa in Cap-Ferrat; mother and son hug, but this is serious. Lynn tells Douglas the deal. He’s a smart kid, so naturally, he’s worried that it’s gonna cost him. “Let me think about it,” he says.
But every son wants to please his mother, right? Douglas bites, and pretty soon Robert is welcoming him to the company, which looks to have been saved, thanks to a pending merger. But then Douglas starts talking to Tom McDade—Oscar’s lawyer—and Sakowitz creditors. Next thing, Robert’s staring down the barrel of a lawsuit: Douglas Wyatt v. Robert Sakowitz. Robert’s nephew is suing him for $8.5 million in damages, accusing him of fraud, self-dealing, and violation of fiduciary responsibilities. This isn’t Oscar’s kid for nothing: On behalf of his brothers, he wants everything—the profits from Robert’s oil deal, his home on River Oaks Boulevard, the contents of his wine cellar, even his high-priced art collection.
After this, there’s total family breakdown. Even though Ann blew Oscar off a long time ago (she caught him at a restaurant with another woman, among other things), she has stayed tight with her grandsons. (One time she chewed out Douglas for eating with Oscar and his girlfriend—flashback to the scene where Douglas promises not to do it again.) Now, though, Ann stops talking to her grandsons too and cuts them out of her will. Lynn is back in the middle, especially when Oscar and Douglas make Ann help pay the store’s creditors by giving back her $100,000 annual death benefit.
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