First there was Dallas and then there was Dynasty, family tales of intrigue in high places, guilty pleasures that kept us couch-bound each week in the 1980s, dazed by the money, the jets, the power, the houses, not to mention the rows and affairs. Then, just as these were reaching the end of their runs, along came The Clintons, a riveting saga of lust and ambition, a tale that never ran out of astounding new plot turns and still keeps the world on the edge of its seat.

As we all know, the story began many years ago, when Wellesley's star feminist met the altogether too plausible Arkansas charmer on the Yale Law School campus, and the two joined their young hearts and their rampant ambitions in an audacious plan to win and share power, of a kind never concocted before. The series took off, and won a huge following, as one intriguing development followed the next. Bill became Arkansas attorney general, and Hillary helped him. Bill became governor, and Hillary helped him. Bill ran for president, and Hillary helped him, now more than ever. Bill became president, and the ratings took off, ensnaring a new, international, audience. Bill retired from office, after many adventures, having beaten back efforts to eject him for perjury. As this was happening, in an attempt to sustain the plot, Hillary ran for the Senate, won, and began running for president, opening a whole new story line, plus a whole new vein of historical interest: Sons have succeeded fathers as president; wives have followed husbands (usually dead ones) into the House or the Senate; brothers have tried to follow brothers into the White House, and failed in the effort; but never before has a former first lady tried to be elected president, and, in the process, make her husband the very first First Man.

And as the plot now heats up, it makes us look anew at the two major characters, and their complex bargain. This is crunch time for the Great Clinton Gamble, the one Hillary took in her deal with Bill: to serve his career first to gain power later, or more power sooner, than she might have won for herself. She has to put up, to prove the claim her fans have been making since the couple emerged: that she is the one who ought to be president, a woman of genius and destiny. And he, for this, and for all of the grief he has caused her, now has to pay up, big time.

In a sense, Hillary has always been the real star of the series. A feminist favorite at high tide of the feminist movement, Hillary had been told all her life by her friends and relations that she had a spectacular and limitless future, and, if she wanted, could Go All The Way. It was a shock and a letdown to some of these mentors when the place that she chose to go first was Arkansas, a place, so it seemed, at the far end of nowhere, in order to follow a man. Even a man with a political future seemed a comedown compared with their fantasies. "I worked hard as a woman to help her get the opportunities she was entitled to," one such woman said sadly, as she helped Hillary pack for her trek into exile. "I thought she was throwing those opportunities away."

Actually, she was on her way not to the kitchen, but to a bargain unique in American politics: She would support and advance Bill while he ran for office, while any power he won would be shared. A genial rogue, and a great favorite with some female viewers, Bill would break his marriage vows with a large cast of women, which made for some interesting plotlines and crises, but he would always keep faith with this part of their contract. Hillary had large policy roles as first lady of Arkansas. In 1990, they thought of having her run to succeed him as governor. Bill ran for president in 1992 on an openly two-for-one ticket. And once he was elected, Bill was more than true to his word.