Jack Pryor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| American Dreams character | |
| Jack Pryor | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
| Hair color | Brown |
| Eye color | Brown |
| Portrayed by | Tom Verica |
John "Jack" Pryor (born c. 1925) is a fictional character from the NBC television show American Dreams. Jack, played by Tom Verica, is the head of the Pryor household, an Irish Catholic family living in West Philadelphia between 1963 and 1966.
As a boy, Jack played high school football. He developed a close relationship with his younger brother Pete, but a more distant relationship with his older brother Ted. Jack's father, who died of a heart attack in 1953, apparently always favored Ted over Jack and Pete, which may explain Jack's close bond with his younger brother.
Jack married Helen Dolan in 1945, shortly after Jack's return from the South Pacific, where he served as a United States Navy Seabee during World War II. Jack and Helen had four children: John Pryor, Jr. ("JJ') in 1946, Meg Pryor in 1948, Patricia Pryor ("Patty") in 1951 and Will Pryor in 1956. As a father, he is very devoted to his family, but he is also a strict disciplinarian who pushes his children very hard.
In the early 1950's, Jack opened Pryor's TV and Radio. The store sold not only televisions and radios, but also sold household appliances and provided a repair service for customers. Jack hired his main assistant, Henry Walker, in 1955. Henry was a black man who lived in North Philadelphia. Jack planned to open a second store in North Philly, with Henry to serve as the store manager, but the store was destroyed in the 1964 Philadelphia race riot, shortly before its scheduled grand opening. Jack made Henry his business partner in 1965.
Jack was elected to the Philadelphia City Council late in 1965 in an upset victory. His campaign openly targeted black voters, who turned out for him on election day. Shortly after taking office, he was offered a bribe by developers who sought to build a downtown shopping mall. Jack initially refused the bribe, but he later accepted their offer after JJ ran up a gambling debt in a failed effort to raise money to buy a house. Jack also successfully pushed, albeit reluctantly, for a black representative to serve on the city's civilian police review board. For this, police officers loyal to police boss Frank Rizzo pulled JJ out of a car late at night and beat him up. Jack then resigned from the council in June of 1966 and confessed to taking the bribe to a reporter from The Philadelphia Inquirer, but the newspaper never ran the story.
Jack is a Catholic (but non-churchgoing) Democrat, who was a big admirer of JFK. He strongly supported US involvement in the Vietnam War; this became a growing source of tension between him and Meg. Jack regularly called anti-war demonstrators "cowards" and "communists." Otherwise, as a middle-aged white man of his time, Jack could be described as fairly progressive in his attitudes. At first, he was not happy about Helen taking a class at Temple University, but he did not try to stop her. Nor was he thrilled with Helen working in a job of her own, but he later backed off. While he was happy to have a black business partner, both Jack and Henry were clearly uncomfortable with Meg's friendship with Henry's son Sam, a bright student who enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania.
American Dreams was cancelled by NBC executives in May of 2005. The third season finale, set in August of 1966, ends with Meg surprising everyone by leaving home for Berkeley, California with her draft-dodger boyfriend. Jack threatens to disown Meg if she leaves, but she goes anyway.
