Earl Hamner Jr.
Encyclopedia
Earl Henry Hamner, Jr. (born on July 10, 1923 in Schuyler, Virginia
) is an American
television
writer
and producer
(sometimes credited as Earl Hamner), best known for his work in the 1970s and 1980s on the long-running CBS
series The Waltons
and Falcon Crest
. As a novelist, he is best known for the novel Spencer's Mountain
, which was inspired by his own childhood and formed the basis for both the film of the same name and the television series The Waltons, for which he provided voiceover
narration.
He based the Walton family grandparents in the popular television series on his own maternal Italian-American grandparents, Ora Lee and Colonel Anderson Gianniny, an anglicized
version of the Italian surname "Giannini".
In 1954, Hamner wrote "Hit and Run", an episode of the NBC
legal drama
Justice
in which guest star E.G. Marshall plays a man haunted by his crime of striking a newsboy on a bicycle and fleeing the scene of the accident.
Hamner also contributed eight episodes in the early 1960s to the CBS science fiction
series The Twilight Zone
. His first script acceptance for the series was his big writing break in Hollywood.
He created two less successful series, Boone
on NBC
(1983–1984), starring Tom Byrd and Barry Corbin
, and Apple's Way
(1974–1975) on CBS with Ronny Cox
.
Hamner used family names to title his projects: Spencer (Spencer's Mountain) is the maiden name of his paternal grandmother Susan Henry Spencer Hamner. "The Waltons" comes from his paternal grandfather Walter Clifton Hamner and great-grandfather Walter Leland Hamner.
Non-fiction
Screenplays
Teleplays
Schuyler, Virginia
Schuyler is a census-designated place in Nelson County, , Virginia, United States, close to Scottsville...
) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
(sometimes credited as Earl Hamner), best known for his work in the 1970s and 1980s on the long-running CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
series The Waltons
The Waltons
The Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show centered on a family growing up in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II. The series pilot was a television...
and Falcon Crest
Falcon Crest
Falcon Crest is an American primetime television soap opera which aired on the CBS network for nine seasons, from December 4, 1981 to May 17, 1990. A total of 227 episodes were produced....
. As a novelist, he is best known for the novel Spencer's Mountain
Spencer's Mountain
Spencer's Mountain is a 1963 family film written, directed, and produced by Delmer Daves from a novel by Earl Hamner, Jr. The novel and film became the basis for the popular television series The Waltons, which followed in 1972...
, which was inspired by his own childhood and formed the basis for both the film of the same name and the television series The Waltons, for which he provided voiceover
VoiceOver
VoiceOver is a screen reader built into Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X, iOS and iPod operating systems. By using VoiceOver, the user can access their Macintosh or iOS device based on spoken descriptions and, in the case of the Mac, the keyboard. The feature is designed to increase accessibility for blind...
narration.
He based the Walton family grandparents in the popular television series on his own maternal Italian-American grandparents, Ora Lee and Colonel Anderson Gianniny, an anglicized
Anglicisation
Anglicisation, or anglicization , is the process of converting verbal or written elements of any other language into a form that is more comprehensible to an English speaker, or, more generally, of altering something such that it becomes English in form or character.The term most often refers to...
version of the Italian surname "Giannini".
In 1954, Hamner wrote "Hit and Run", an episode of the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
legal drama
Legal drama
A legal drama is a work of dramatic fiction about crime and civil litigation. Subtypes of legal dramas include courtroom dramas and legal thrillers, and come in all forms, including novels, television shows, and films. Legal drama sometimes overlap with crime drama, most notably in the case of Law...
Justice
Justice (1954 TV series)
Justice is an NBC half-hour drama television series about attorneys of the Legal Aid Society of New York, which aired from April 8, 1954 to March 25, 1956. In the 1954-1955 season, Justice starred Dane Clark as Richard Adams and Gary Merrill as Jason Tyler. In the 1955-1956 season, William Prince...
in which guest star E.G. Marshall plays a man haunted by his crime of striking a newsboy on a bicycle and fleeing the scene of the accident.
Hamner also contributed eight episodes in the early 1960s to the CBS science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
series The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
. His first script acceptance for the series was his big writing break in Hollywood.
He created two less successful series, Boone
Boone (TV series)
Boone is a 13-week dramatic television series which was broadcast on NBC from 1983–1984. It starred, principally, Tom Byrd and Barry Corbin. Byrd played teenager Boone Sawyer, who aspired to a career in rock and roll music, despite the advice of his stern father, Merit Sawyer, played by Corbin, who...
on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
(1983–1984), starring Tom Byrd and Barry Corbin
Barry Corbin
Leonard Barrie Corbin, known as Barry Corbin , is an American actor with more than one hundred film, television and video game credits.-Early life:...
, and Apple's Way
Apple's Way
Apple's Way is a television dramedy which aired on CBS from 1974-1975. It was created by Earl Hamner, Jr..-Premise:The Apples, a family from Los Angeles, seek refuge from the hectic pace of city living and relocate to the father's hometown of Appleton, Iowa, which was founded by the father's...
(1974–1975) on CBS with Ronny Cox
Ronny Cox
Daniel Ronald "Ronny" Cox is an American character actor, singer-songwriter and guitarist.-Personal life:Cox, the third of five children, was born in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, the son of Lounette and Bob P. Cox, a carpenter who also worked at a dairy. He grew up in Portales, New Mexico...
.
Hamner used family names to title his projects: Spencer (Spencer's Mountain) is the maiden name of his paternal grandmother Susan Henry Spencer Hamner. "The Waltons" comes from his paternal grandfather Walter Clifton Hamner and great-grandfather Walter Leland Hamner.
List of works
Novels- Fifty Roads to Town (1953)
- Spencer's MountainSpencer's MountainSpencer's Mountain is a 1963 family film written, directed, and produced by Delmer Daves from a novel by Earl Hamner, Jr. The novel and film became the basis for the popular television series The Waltons, which followed in 1972...
(1961) - You Can't Get There From Here (1965)
- The Homecoming: A Novel About Spencer's Mountain (1970)
Non-fiction
- The Avocado Drive Zoo (a memoir) (1999)
- Good Night, John Boy (reminiscences of making The Waltons TV series) (2002)
- Generous Women (collection of memoirs) (2006)
Screenplays
- Spencer's Mountain (1963)
- Palm Springs Weekend (1963)
- Charlottes Web (1973)
Teleplays
- Highway (1954)
- for The Twilight ZoneThe Twilight ZoneThe Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
:- "The Hunt" (1962)
- "A Piano in the HouseA Piano in the House"A Piano In the House" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:Drama critic Fitzgerald Fortune goes to Throckmorton's curio shop to buy his young wife Esther a player piano as a birthday present. At the shop, as the hard-bitten and hard-shelled owner...
" (1962) - "Jess-BelleJess-Belle"Jess-Belle" is an episode of the American television science fiction & fantasy anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:Jess-Belle, determined that ex-boyfriend Billy-Ben Turner and his fiancee Ellwyn Glover not marry, enlists the aid of a local witch , who casts a spell that makes Billy-Ben...
" (1963) - "Ring-a-Ding GirlRing-a-Ding Girl"Ring-a-Ding Girl" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:Bunny Blake is a movie star. Her hometown fan club sends her a magic ring, in which she sees the faces of her friends and family from the small town in which she grew up...
" (1963) - "You DriveYou Drive"You Drive" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:Oliver Pope is in a hurry. The nervous and distracted man's mind is not on his driving, and as a result, he slams his 1956 Ford Fairlane into Timmy Danbers, a young boy delivering newspapers on a...
" (1964) - "Black Leather JacketsBlack Leather Jackets"Black Leather Jackets" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:Three beings, disguised as human males wearing leather jackets, are part of an advance alien invasion force, sent to Earth to infect city water reservoirs with bacteria. Their plan is to...
" (1964) - "Stopover in a Quiet TownStopover in a Quiet Town"Stopover in a Quiet Town" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:A married couple, Bob and Millie Frazier, wake up in an unfamiliar house...
" (1964) - "The Bewitchin' PoolThe Bewitchin' Pool"The Bewitchin' Pool" is the final episode of the American television series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:Sport Sharewood and her brother Jeb live in a large, expensive house, but their mother is cold, insensitive and self-centered; their father is kinder, but still a distant and preoccupied...
" (1964)
- Heidi (1969)
- Appalachian Autumn (1970)
- Aesop's Fables (1971)
- The Homecoming (for CBS, 1971)
- Where the Lilies Bloom (1972)
External links
- Official Earl Hamner website
- The Hamner Theater The Hamner Theater in Nelson County, VA.
- Write TV Public Television Interview with Earl Hamner
- Earl Hamner, Jr. A biography of Earl Hamner, Jr. by Brandy Davis