BEHIND THE SCENES IN LINCOLN'S WHITE HOUSE.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

Mary Todd Lincoln had a vested interest in the presidential election of 1864, but not in the way you might initially imagine. Yes, her husband was running for re-election in the middle of the conflagration history books call the Civil War, and yes, she wanted him to win, though until the final weeks of the campaign the fact that the Union was faltering badly promised to sweep him out of office in disgrace.

But the reason Mary wanted Abraham Lincoln to emerge victorious was that her shopaholism - in one three-month spree, she bought, among other things, 300 pairs of gloves, many never leaving their wrapping - had driven her thousands of dollars into debt, and were he to lose the election and focus on things other than the war between the North and South, he might discover her economic indiscretions.

That's one of the fun facts presented in PBS' ``Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided'' that began Monday night on KCET (to be repeated in its entirety on Sunday from 1 to 7 p.m.). The three-part miniseries is an intermittently absorbing ``American Experience'' documentary from director/co-writer David Grubin (``Napoleon'') and co-writer Geoffrey C. Ward (Ken Burns' frequent collaborator, whose credits include ``The Civil War'') that focuses on the war at home - in this case, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. We've all heard the stories of Mary Todd Lincoln's insanity, but here, they're brought front and center, a second burden that accompanied Honest Abe's preoccupation with trying to do the right thing, even when his own attitudes toward blacks weren't always terribly enlightened.

The first installment is probably the least compelling and most seemingly padded of the three, focusing on Lincoln and Mary Todd's difficult and more privileged upbringings, respectively, as well as their troubled courtship - Abraham proposed to Mary and then reneged, mentioning to a colleague he found the idea of marriage ``indescribably horrible.'' Mary was attracted to Abe's ambition; she admitted, ``You can see he is not pretty.''

But there's a lot of uninformative speculation in the first episode, as well. Though not much is known of Lincoln's mother, who died when he was 9, that doesn't stop the filmmakers from expounding on what little they have, and one interviewee ``imagines'' the young Abe rooting in the Kentucky woods ``for berries, hickory nuts, walnuts, probably herbs (and) chasing chipmunks.'' That's colorful detail that doesn't really add much to our understanding of the man who would free the slaves. Visually, too, the series seems flat, with endless shots of forests, the sun poking through trees and solitary-lit windows in edifices late at night.

Still, my 10-year-old was fascinated by much of it, and you can't place too high a value on that. Tonight's and Wednesday's installments explore the Civil War and the deep funks that informed both Abe and Mary's existences. Lincoln was gravely haunted by the deaths of soldiers (some 600,000), reading the biblical book of Job for solace and inspiration, while Mary - well, Mary shopped, redecorating the White House into something shiny and spiffy. They also had to cope with the deaths of two of their own sons while the country was torn asunder.

``A House Divided'' charts both Lincoln's measured hesitancy in dealing with the South and slavery, as well as his bolder initiatives, while Mary was ill-equipped to deal with controversy - since her family lived in the South, the North eyed her with suspicion. Lincoln withstood onslaughts of criticism from both sides - he described himself as a ``bumbler'' while others decried him as ``the widow-maker''; an abolitionist described his efforts as digging a pit with one hand and filling it with the other.

In the end, it seems he did what he could when he could, and no less a personage than Frederick Douglass, whose first impression of Lincoln was lukewarm, declared his works ``a sacred effort.'' And of course, the film deals movingly with Lincoln's assassination, so soon after his greatest victory, which assured his place as legend in the annals of history.

``ABRAHAM AND MARY LINCOLN: A HOUSE DIVIDED''

What: ``American Experience'' documentary miniseries on the lives of the 16th president and his first lady.

Where: KCET.

When: 9 tonight and Wednesday night. (Part 1 aired Monday. The series will air in its entirety Sunday - Part 1 at 1 p.m, Part 2 at 3 p.m., Part 3 at 5 p.m.

Our rating: Three stars