The network TV-movie is only dead until the next group of dedicated artists comes along to breathe life into it. And life abounds — in all its frustrations and hopes, fears and joys — in ABC's intimate and powerfully moving remake of Lorraine Hansberry's stage classic A Raisin in the Sun, reuniting the main cast of the 2004 Broadway revival.

This means everyone will now get to witness Phylicia Rashad's magnificent Tony-winning performance as Lena Younger, the widowed matriarch and backbone of a family of conflicted dreamers, trapped in a cramped Chicago tenement that becomes a tinderbox of explosive emotions.

An instant front-runner for every major TV-acting prize, Rashad radiates warmth, but also the sort of proud fire that's necessary to keep her family in line as they impatiently await a $10,000 insurance check that could change their lives.

The superstar-marquee draw of the revival was Sean Combs as Lena's ambitious son, Walter Lee, and his work plays better in close-up than it did on stage, where his sulkiness often got lost. On screen, it registers as heavy disappointment and restless resentment at the setbacks he's faced in his yearning for security and respect.

You may never believe this Walter Lee is a "volcano" the way Sidney Poitier was in the original, but Combs is more convincing as a weak man and poor loser — albeit one who will never truly be lost, as long as the women in his life have a say. As they always do.

The women are the main event here, including the wonderful Audra McDonald (also a Tony winner) as Walter Lee's long-suffering wife and Sanaa Lathan as his spunky sister. It would take a hard heart not to root for this family, to cry with them or to rejoice when they finally get their moment in the sun.

A Raisin in the Sun airs Monday, Feb. 25, at 8 pm/ET on ABC.

Sidebar: Pete Seeger: The Power of Song

Bruce Springsteen calls him a "citizen artist." Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines says he's "a living testament to the First Amendment."

Pete Seeger more than lives up to the billing, but as this loving and inspiring American Masters profile demonstrates, he'd probably just as soon move beyond the testimonials to lead us all in a rousing group song. For Seeger, his voice means nothing if it isn't joined with others. "Participation. That's what's going to save the human race," he says, his enthusiasm and optimism undimmed by time (he's 88).

The Power of Song stirringly charts Seeger's fame as he popularized folk music, as well as his notoriety when he was blacklisted during the '50s Communist witch hunt and banned from TV for years. His life and his songs provide a soundtrack of the American spirit.

Pete Seeger: The Power of Song airs Wednesday, Feb. 27, on PBS; check local listings.