''State Fair'' is a 1976 American

made-for-television A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie, telefilm, telemovie or TV film/movie, is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a Terrestr ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

loosely based on the 1932 novel of the same title by Phil Stong. It was broadcast on CBS on May 14, 1976, and starred Vera Miles as Melissa Bryant, the matriarch of the family. It is the fourth film adaptation of the novel, the previous three having been released to theaters in

1933 Events January * January 11 – Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independen ...

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II, the fall of Nazi Germany, and the Empire of Japan. It is also the year concentration camps were liberated and the only year in which atomic weapons have been used in combat. Events World War II will be ...

, and

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

. As in Stong's novel and previous film adaptations, the story involves an Iowa farm family who travel to the

Iowa State Fair The Iowa State Fair is an annual state fair held in Des Moines, Iowa, every August. It began in 1854 and has been held on the Iowa State Fairgrounds since 1886. It is based in the state capital Des Moines, Iowa over an 11 day period in August ...

, where the son and daughter of the family each find romance. However, in the 1976 film, most of the character names were changed (the "Frakes" of the original novel became the "Bryants"), new son and grandson characters were added, and other aspects of the story were changed and updated to reflect the 1970s. The 1976 version was made as a

pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie) in United Kingdom and United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television netwo ...

for a

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

, but the series was never produced. It has been included as a special feature on the

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

release of the 1945 film.

Plot

Melissa and Jim Bryant live on an Iowa farm with their adult son Chuck, their adult daughter Karen, and their teenage son Wayne, who is a high school

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of Post-secondary school, post-secondary educatio ...

. Wayne is a talented singer and guitarist who dreams of country music stardom. Karen, newly separated from her husband, has recently rejoined the family with her own young son Tommy, who misses his father. The Bryants attend the

, where Wayne enters the "Stars of Tomorrow" talent contest and falls in love with fellow competitor Bobbie Jean Shaw, who also aspires to a country music career in

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. Bobbie Jean, who may be using Wayne to further her own ambitions, pressures him to run away with her so they can pursue their musical dreams together. Meanwhile, Karen begins a new romance with her former classmate, David, after they run into each other at the fair.

Cast

* Vera Miles as Melissa Bryant * Tim O'Connor as Jim Bryant * Mitch Vogel as Wayne Bryant * Julie Cobb as Karen Bryant Miller * Jeff Cotler as Tommy Miller * Dennis Redfield as Chuck Bryant * Linda Purl as Bobbie Jean Shaw * Joel Stedman as David Clemmans

References

External links

* * * {{David Lowell Rich 1976 television films 1976 films 1976 drama films 20th Century Fox Television films American drama television films CBS films Films directed by David Lowell Rich Films scored by Laurence Rosenthal Films scored by Lionel Newman Films set in Iowa Iowa State Fair State Fair (franchise) Television films as pilots Television pilots not picked up as a series 1970s American films 1970s English-language films