Favorite Son is a miniseries about political intrigue that aired on NBC in three parts from October 30 to November 1, 1988, a week before that year's presidential election.
It starred Harry Hamlin, Linda Kozlowski, James Whitmore, Robert Loggia, John Mahoney, Ronny Cox, and Jason Alexander.
One morning, during an outdoor press conference in Washington, D.C., Fallon is delivering a speech welcoming Col. Octavio Martinez, the leader of the Nicaraguan contras.
His chief of staff, Lou Brenner (Mahoney), suggests that he can win by selecting the now-popular Fallon as his running mate and dropping the current Vice President Daniel Eastman (Mitchell Ryan) from the ticket.
For his part, Eastman refuses to go quietly, and his top aide, E. Ben Wycoff (Frederic Lehne), begins plotting to undermine Fallon by digging into his background.
Based on eyewitness testimony, O'Brien identifies the sniper as Rolf Petersen (Brian Thompson), an ex-Marine and former CIA agent who went rogue.
Brenner openly suggests that the disclosure that a former CIA agent assassinated Martinez might damage relations with the United States' Latin American allies.
In his review in the New York Times, John J. O'Connor wrote that "'Favorite Son'...offers a portrait of contemporary values and governmental machinations that sets new high-water marks for cynicism.