Part 2 won the 1979 Emmy Award for Outstanding Video Tape Editing for a Limited Series or Special for film editors Ken Denisoff, Janet McFadden and Tucker Wiard.

[2] Hester Prynne (Meg Foster) is a young, Puritan woman who commits adultery while her husband is in Europe, and, upon the birth of her illegitimate child, is subsequently condemned to wear a scarlet "A" for the rest of her life.

The person of Hester's husband, Roger Chillingworth (Kevin Conway) completes this grim triangle as the mysterious situation leads to a shattering climax.

[3] Marvin Kitman conceded that it might be "heresy" to criticize such ambitious programming, but he faulted the first episode's pacing, saying "it moves like a gastropod" and "there is a lot of sewing going on."

"[9] Because the production was expensive, no similar adaptions of American literary classics followed from WGBH; "It would be great if it was the first of many, but it's not likely," admitted director Rick Hauser.