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Good morning, John-Boy
A TV institution from the 1970s is getting the reboot treatment
In December 1971, CBS broadcast a TV movie called “The Homecoming: A Christmas Story.” It starred acclaimed actress Patricia Neal as Olivia Walton, mother to a large family in rural, Depression-era Virginia, with Richard Thomas as her eldest son, John-Boy. Edgar Bergen (better known as a ventriloquist than a dramatic actor) and Ellen Corby played grandparents living in the home. The plot of the movie is that the father (played by Andrew Duggan) has been working out of state but is expected home for the holidays; as Christmas Day grows closer, and he does not appear, the family becomes more worried.
The Emmy Award-winning movie was written by Earl Hamner Jr., based on his semi-autobiographical novel “The Homecoming.” It’s not the first time Hamner had written fiction inspired by his family. A previous novel, “Spencer’s Mountain,” had been turned into a 1963 movie of the same name — but that novel and movie were set in Wyoming, not in Hamner’s real-life home state, Virginia.
“The Homecoming” had been intended as a stand-alone project, not as the pilot of a TV series. In fact, a few…
