"Appalachian Autumn" is the first

television play A television play is a television programming genre which is a drama performance broadcast from a multi-camera television studio, usually live in the early days of television but later recorded to tape. This is in contrast to a television movi ...

episode of the third season of the American television series ''

CBS Playhouse ''CBS Playhouse'' is an American anthology drama television series that aired on CBS from 1967 to 1970. Airing twelve plays over the course of its run, the series won ten Primetime Emmy Awards and featured many noteworthy actors and playwrights. ...

''. It is a drama about the poverty of the fictional coal mining town of Harper's Gap in

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

, and the attempts of a

VISTA Vista usually refers to a distant view. Vista may also refer to: Software *Windows Vista, the line of Microsoft Windows client operating systems released in 2006 and 2007 *VistA, (Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture) ...

worker to assist the people of the town. "Appalachian Autumn" was broadcast in October 1969, and received technical

Emmy award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

s for lighting. Reviews of the episode were mixed, with Rick Du Brow in the

Lexington, NC Lexington is the county seat of Davidson County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 18,931. It is located in central North Carolina, south of Winston-Salem. Major highways include I-85, I-85B, U. ...

''Dispatch'' calling it "still worth tuning in" in spite of ''CBS Playhouse'' "being on its soapbox." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' critic Jack Gould noted the episode was "not the pillar of dramatic success; nor is it immune to dramatic excess," but praised the broadcast on how it "comes to grips with an issue such as the reality of poor whites in

Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...

." Writer

Earl Hamner, Jr. Earl Henry Hamner Jr. (July 10, 1923 – March 24, 2016) was an American television writer and producer (sometimes credited as Earl Hamner), best known for his work in the 1970s and 1980s as the creator of two long-running series, ''The Waltons' ...

would later use this episode as the framework for his award-winning television series '' The Waltons''. Actor

Phillip Alford Phillip Alford (born September 11, 1948) is an American former actor best known for his roles as Jem Finch in the 1962 film ''To Kill a Mockingbird'', and Boy Anderson in ''Shenandoah'' (1965). After retiring from acting, he became a businessm ...

, a child during the filming, recounted his experience filming "Appalachian Autumn" in the book ''Growing Up on the Set'', noting that one scene resulted in his getting a

concussion A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a head injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Symptoms may include loss of consciousness (LOC); memory loss; headaches; difficulty with thinking, concentration, ...

.''Growing Up on the Set: Interviews With 39 Former Child Actors of Classic Film and Television''. Tom Goldrup and Jim Goldrup, McFarland, 2002, , p17.

References

External links

* 1969 American television episodes 1969 plays CBS Playhouse episodes {{tv-episode-stub