The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971) (TV)

User Rating:

8.5/10   

Director:

Fielder Cook

Writers:

Earl Hamner Jr. (novel)
Earl Hamner Jr. (screenplay)

Release Date:

19 December 1971 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Story of the events that happened on Christmas Eve, 1933, to one rural American family.

Plot Keywords:

Christmas | Family Saga | Great Depression | Mother Daughter Relationship | Alcoholism

Awards:

Won Golden Globe. Another 5 nominations

Cast

Patricia Neal	...	Olivia Walton
Richard Thomas	...	John-Boy Walton
Edgar Bergen	...	Grandpa Zebb Walton
Ellen Corby	...	Grandma Walton
Cleavon Little	...	Hawthorne Dooley
Dorothy Stickney	...	Emily Baldwin
Josephine Hutchinson	...	Mamie Baldwin
William Windom	...	Charlie Snead
Andrew Duggan	...	John Walton
Woodrow Parfrey	...	Ike Godsey
Judy Norton-Taylor	...	Mary Ellen Walton (as Judy Norton)
Mary Beth McDonough	...	Erin Walton
Kami Cotler	...	Elizabeth Walton
Eric Scott	...	Ben Walton
David W. Harper	...	Jim-Bob Walton

MPAA:

Rated PG for brief mild language.

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Bridger-Teton National Forest, Jackson, Wyoming, USA

Company:

Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)

Trivia:

Earl Hamner's two children Scott and Carrie are in the film as two of the children listening to the missionary lady. Carrie is the short-dark-haired girl in a home-made hat and Scott is the boy with paler hair, also in a hat.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In the beginning of the movie, when the children enter the barn with the cow, there is a shot from the floor up to the loft from where the children are throwing down hay. A brand new steel corrugated roof is clearly visible above them.

Quotes:

Jim-Bob Walton: What's the matter with Mary Ellen?
John-Boy: Well, she's just crazy, everybody goes crazy when you're thirteen.
Mary Ellen: The world is a big round ball! Eight-thousand miles smack through the middle! Waltons Mountain is just a tiny speck on it!

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Waltons: A Decade of the Waltons (1980) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Jingle Bells

Growing up on Waltons Mountian, every Thursday I was one of the kids except I was just in front of the Tv in my living room.

One night in December of 1971,I was just a young child of 7 years , enjoying the hope and antisipation of the upcomming Christmas holiday. I was just looking through the channels of my TV set and ran across this movie that had been on for maybe 40 minites or so. just as I tuned in, John Boy had just recked the family truck looking for his Daddy. I continuded watching this show while more and more becomming curiously intersted in this family from the 30s who seemed to be so poor but in turn so very rich in love and closeness of a strong and courageous group of relitives. After the airing of "The Homecomming" that night, I was filled with a feeling of goodness and respect of family that today is almost non exsistant in television. To tell the truth, I think it may never come to that type of programing ever again. I had no idea of what I just witnessed in the beginning program of what would become the best , most highly respected family show to date. This is a TRUE classic, timeless and ever lasting and if you are like me , I know that values shuch as the ones that The Waltons taught us for 10 years after that Dec. night, should make a comback and make it fast!!What happened? can you tell me? Ill tell you all this ,to this day , I still find myself messing around with my kids at night saying, goodnight John boy, goodnight Mary Ellen (although their names are not John Boy nor Mary Ellen) but still I wait for the reply that I heard so many Thursday nights in the 70s at 900pm which is truly music to my ears.... goodnight Daddy!