Palmerstown, U.S.A.-Pilot - Part 1 of 4
- 6 years ago
Palmerstown, U.S.A.[2] (shortened to Palmerstown in March 1981)[3] is a television drama series that aired on CBS from March 20, 1980 to June 9, 1981.[4] It was created by Norman Lear and Alex Haley,[1][3] whose childhood was the basis for the series.[5] It tells the story of two nine-year-old boys in the rural Southern community of Palmerstown who become best friends during the Great Depression, despite one being black and the other being white.
In the pilot episode we meet shopkeeper W.D. Hall (Beeson Carroll) and blacksmith Luther Freeman (Bill Duke), a white man and a black man who are as friendly as is possible in the American South in 1935. While Luther and W.D. share a tentative relationship, their wives are friends and confidants. Bessie Freeman (Jonelle Allen) is a midwife and mother of three - shy teenager Diana (Star-Shemah Bobatoon), nine-year-old Booker T. (Jermain H. Johnson), and a newborn (nicknamed Pumpkin). W.D.’s wife Coralee (Janice St. John) is a former teacher with two children of her own – headstrong Willy-Joe (Michael J. Fox) and younger brother David (Brian G. Wilson) – with a third on the way when the series begins. Bessie even delivers Coralee’s baby in the pilot episode, despite Luther’s fears of ramifications if she doesn’t survive.
Early episodes play like self-contained feature films, with the town’s racial dynamics depicted through the experiences of the young boys. As time passed, the series evolved into a more traditional episodic drama, with some (welcome) soapy elements. Other villagers were added to the recurring cast, including W.D.’s bootlegging sister Sarah “Widder” Brown (Iris Korn), mayor (and mortician) Virgil Quade (Macon McCalman), and Luther’s hired man Hoss (Otis Young, known to getTV viewers as bounty hunter Jemal David on The Outcasts).
The series also has an unusually strong collection of guest stars, including Gerald McRaney as a townsperson, David Caruso as a thieving drifter, Danny Glover as an ex-con, Alfre Woodard as Bessie’s childhood friend, Fionnula Flanagan as W.D.’s former girlfriend, and Michael Constantine (who starred in executive producer Ron Rubin’s Room 222) as a government revenue inspector who courts Widder Brown. In a two-part episode written by Haley, Morgan Freeman plays a Negro League baseball star who challenges the Palmerstown team (including Scatman Crothers) to a game with high racial stakes. And, in perhaps the most touching episode of a series that is never short on tears, Louis Gossett Jr. plays an Army veteran who returns to Palmerstown to claim land stolen from his family. (Gossett was Emmy-nominated for his performance.)
In the pilot episode we meet shopkeeper W.D. Hall (Beeson Carroll) and blacksmith Luther Freeman (Bill Duke), a white man and a black man who are as friendly as is possible in the American South in 1935. While Luther and W.D. share a tentative relationship, their wives are friends and confidants. Bessie Freeman (Jonelle Allen) is a midwife and mother of three - shy teenager Diana (Star-Shemah Bobatoon), nine-year-old Booker T. (Jermain H. Johnson), and a newborn (nicknamed Pumpkin). W.D.’s wife Coralee (Janice St. John) is a former teacher with two children of her own – headstrong Willy-Joe (Michael J. Fox) and younger brother David (Brian G. Wilson) – with a third on the way when the series begins. Bessie even delivers Coralee’s baby in the pilot episode, despite Luther’s fears of ramifications if she doesn’t survive.
Early episodes play like self-contained feature films, with the town’s racial dynamics depicted through the experiences of the young boys. As time passed, the series evolved into a more traditional episodic drama, with some (welcome) soapy elements. Other villagers were added to the recurring cast, including W.D.’s bootlegging sister Sarah “Widder” Brown (Iris Korn), mayor (and mortician) Virgil Quade (Macon McCalman), and Luther’s hired man Hoss (Otis Young, known to getTV viewers as bounty hunter Jemal David on The Outcasts).
The series also has an unusually strong collection of guest stars, including Gerald McRaney as a townsperson, David Caruso as a thieving drifter, Danny Glover as an ex-con, Alfre Woodard as Bessie’s childhood friend, Fionnula Flanagan as W.D.’s former girlfriend, and Michael Constantine (who starred in executive producer Ron Rubin’s Room 222) as a government revenue inspector who courts Widder Brown. In a two-part episode written by Haley, Morgan Freeman plays a Negro League baseball star who challenges the Palmerstown team (including Scatman Crothers) to a game with high racial stakes. And, in perhaps the most touching episode of a series that is never short on tears, Louis Gossett Jr. plays an Army veteran who returns to Palmerstown to claim land stolen from his family. (Gossett was Emmy-nominated for his performance.)