The Heartland Series
Encyclopedia
The Heartland Series is a series of television program
s about the culture of Appalachia
, produced by WBIR-TV
of Knoxville, Tennessee
, over the 25-year period 1984 through 2009. The series was revived on a limited basis in 2010.
with a special series celebrating the people and land of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Actor Bill Landry was hired to host the series. He had previously been a teacher, had written and begun performing a one-man play
based on the life of Albert Einstein
called "Einstein the Man," and had portrayed a fictional Tennessee River
boat captain named "Captain Nat" as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority
(TVA) exhibit at the 1982 World's Fair
in Knoxville. Following the fair, he had continued to play the role of Captain Nat on a months-long barge
tour of the Tennessee, Cumberland
, and Mississippi River
s that TVA conducted for its 50th anniversary.
The TV series was initially scheduled to run for just three months. According to Landry, the original concept, formed by WBIR creative services director Steve Dean and station general manager Jim Hart, was "to take a camera
and interview the last remnants of the old mountain people and go on location.” Each episode was three minutes and 40 seconds long, designed to air in five-minute time slots during and after daily news broadcasts.
The series continued past the short run that was originally planned. Subject matter included geology
, wildlife, native plants, invasive species
, and other aspects of the region's natural history
, Native American
lifeways and archeology, re-enactments and remembrances of historical events ranging from events in the American Revolutionary War
to coal mining
disasters and the early years of TVA, and feature stories about regional culture. As a result of his work on the series, host Bill Landry told an interviewer that he had learned to “tan hides
, make jelly butter, saw logs, eat tree bark, carve soapstone
, build a log cabin
, cut timber, run a sawmill
, make moonshine
, shoe a horse
, call a hoot owl
, rut
like a deer
and know when the buffalo
runs.” Traditional music was a perennial topic, including performances by and interviews with traditional musicians active in East Tennessee, demonstrations by craftsmen who make musical instruments, and exploration of musical traditions such as old harp singing and Scottish and Irish influences on the region's music. Two topics that the series generally avoided were politics
and controversial religious practices such as snake handling
. In addition to the Smokies national park, on-scene production locations in East Tennessee included the Museum of Appalachia
, where several episodes were taped, including the titles "1791," "Just Another Day," "The Music Tale," "The Toggins," "Frontier Music, Frontier Foods," and "Gift for Jacob," Rugby
, Roan Mountain State Park
, the Savage Gulf State Natural Area in Grundy County, and Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
.
Landry's skill as an interview
er has been remarked upon by many observers. His folksy, rambling style made him effective at putting people at ease and drawing out the interesting stories of the people that he encountered in the "hills, hollows, small towns and major cities" of Appalachia.
In 1998, the series was expanded to include a 30-minute version airing each Saturday at 7:00 p.m., while it continued to run the original five-minute version during the morning news, after 10 News at Noon, and after 10 News Nightbeat.
In total, about 1,900 short episodes and 150 half-hour programs were produced in the show's 25-year history. Bill Landry was host and narrator for the entire series. He also served as co-producer and wrote and directed many episodes. Steve Dean was executive producer for 20 years, and Doug Mills was cameraman for all but one of the episodes.
The series has been successful with audiences, sometimes achieving audience ratings
of 7.0 or higher. In addition to being broadcast on WBIR, the series appeared on WTVC
in Chattanooga during the 1980s and was shown on the Travel Channel
(under the title Appalachian Stories) for six years.
asking for the series to be continued, but WBIR followed through with its plan to end it. The last episode was taped at the Museum of Appalachia
in Norris
on August 8, 2009 before an audience estimated at 10,000 people, one of the largest crowds in the museum's history. People seeking Landry's autograph
waited in line for an hour. The final show featured several Appalachian traditional musicians who had appeared previously in the series, including fiddler
Danny Gammon, Bobby Fulcher, Tony Thomas
and Jimmy McCarroll.
The last episode was scheduled for broadcast as an hour-long special on September 19, 2009, but to avoid conflict with a Tennessee Volunteers
football game the broadcast was postponed and rescheduled to be shown in a prime time
slot at 8:00 p.m. on October 17, 2009.
s, six Iris Awards from the National Association of Television Program Executives
, one silver medal and two bronze medals from the New York International Film and Television Festival, and a Theodore Roosevelt Award for Best Outdoor Documentary.
On the day that the last episode was taped, former U.S. Senator Howard Baker
, who had appeared in one episode, called the series "the last iteration of our history and culture of a generation." Mark Brown, Carson Newman College's director of news and media relations, described the series as "the nation's longest-running sociological video repository" and said "it did for Southern Appalachia what Studs Terkel
did for Chicago
."
Thousands of hours of never-broadcast videotape
s made during the show's 25-year history are being archived in the historical collection of the McClung Museum
in Knoxville. Episodes from the series have been incorporated into Appalachian studies
curricula, and The Heartland Series videos depicting Appalachian crafts and craftspeople are displayed in the "Appalachian Heritage" exhibit of the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge
. United States embassies around the world keep tapes of The Heartland Series broadcasts as an information resource on life in Appalachia.
ballad "He Mandu," which is played on the hammered dulcimer
by folklorist Guy Carawan
.
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
s about the culture of Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
, produced by WBIR-TV
WBIR-TV
WBIR-TV, channel 10, is the NBC affiliate television station in Knoxville, Tennessee. The station is licensed to the Gannett Pacific Corporation, a subsidiary of the Gannett Company...
of Knoxville, Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
, over the 25-year period 1984 through 2009. The series was revived on a limited basis in 2010.
Production history
The Heartland Series was conceived in 1984 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Great Smoky Mountains National ParkGreat Smoky Mountains National Park
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a United States National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site that straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are a division of the larger Appalachian Mountain chain. The border between Tennessee and North...
with a special series celebrating the people and land of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Actor Bill Landry was hired to host the series. He had previously been a teacher, had written and begun performing a one-man play
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
based on the life of Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
called "Einstein the Man," and had portrayed a fictional Tennessee River
Tennessee River
The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names...
boat captain named "Captain Nat" as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority
Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected...
(TVA) exhibit at the 1982 World's Fair
1982 World's Fair
The 1982 World's Fair, formally known as the Knoxville International Energy Exposition, was held in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the United States. The theme of the exposition was "Energy Turns the World."...
in Knoxville. Following the fair, he had continued to play the role of Captain Nat on a months-long barge
Barge
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...
tour of the Tennessee, Cumberland
Cumberland River
The Cumberland River is a waterway in the Southern United States. It is long. It starts in Harlan County in far southeastern Kentucky between Pine and Cumberland mountains, flows through southern Kentucky, crosses into northern Tennessee, and then curves back up into western Kentucky before...
, and Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
s that TVA conducted for its 50th anniversary.
The TV series was initially scheduled to run for just three months. According to Landry, the original concept, formed by WBIR creative services director Steve Dean and station general manager Jim Hart, was "to take a camera
Video camera
A video camera is a camera used for electronic motion picture acquisition, initially developed by the television industry but now common in other applications as well. The earliest video cameras were those of John Logie Baird, based on the electromechanical Nipkow disk and used by the BBC in...
and interview the last remnants of the old mountain people and go on location.” Each episode was three minutes and 40 seconds long, designed to air in five-minute time slots during and after daily news broadcasts.
The series continued past the short run that was originally planned. Subject matter included geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, wildlife, native plants, invasive species
Invasive species
"Invasive species", or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions....
, and other aspects of the region's natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
, Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
lifeways and archeology, re-enactments and remembrances of historical events ranging from events in the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
to coal mining
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
disasters and the early years of TVA, and feature stories about regional culture. As a result of his work on the series, host Bill Landry told an interviewer that he had learned to “tan hides
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
, make jelly butter, saw logs, eat tree bark, carve soapstone
Soapstone
Soapstone is a metamorphic rock, a talc-schist. It is largely composed of the mineral talc and is thus rich in magnesium. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occurs in the areas where tectonic plates are subducted, changing rocks by heat and pressure, with influx...
, build a log cabin
Log cabin
A log cabin is a house built from logs. It is a fairly simple type of log house. A distinction should be drawn between the traditional meanings of "log cabin" and "log house." Historically most "Log cabins" were a simple one- or 1½-story structures, somewhat impermanent, and less finished or less...
, cut timber, run a sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
, make moonshine
Moonshine
Moonshine is an illegally produced distilled beverage...
, shoe a horse
Horseshoe
A horseshoe, is a fabricated product, normally made of metal, although sometimes made partially or wholly of modern synthetic materials, designed to protect a horse's hoof from wear and tear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall...
, call a hoot owl
Barred Owl
The Barred Owl is a large typical owl. It goes by many other names, including eight hooter, rain owl, wood owl, and striped owl, but is probably best known as the hoot owl.-Description:...
, rut
Rut (mammalian reproduction)
The rut is the mating season of ruminant animals such as deer, sheep, elk, moose, caribou, ibex, goats, pronghorn and Asian and African antelope....
like a deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
and know when the buffalo
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...
runs.” Traditional music was a perennial topic, including performances by and interviews with traditional musicians active in East Tennessee, demonstrations by craftsmen who make musical instruments, and exploration of musical traditions such as old harp singing and Scottish and Irish influences on the region's music. Two topics that the series generally avoided were politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
and controversial religious practices such as snake handling
Snake handling
Snake handling or serpent handling is a religious ritual in a small number of Pentecostal churches in the U.S., usually characterized as rural and Holiness. The practice began in the early 20th century in Appalachia, spreading to mostly coal mining towns. The practice plays only a small part of...
. In addition to the Smokies national park, on-scene production locations in East Tennessee included the Museum of Appalachia
Museum of Appalachia
The Museum of Appalachia, located in Norris, Tennessee, north of Knoxville, is a living history museum that interprets the pioneer and early 20th-century period of the Southern Appalachian region of the United States...
, where several episodes were taped, including the titles "1791," "Just Another Day," "The Music Tale," "The Toggins," "Frontier Music, Frontier Foods," and "Gift for Jacob," Rugby
Rugby, Tennessee
Rugby is an unincorporated community in Morgan and Scott counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Founded in 1880 by English author Thomas Hughes, Rugby was built as an experimental utopian colony. While Hughes's experiment largely failed, a small community lingered at Rugby throughout the 20th...
, Roan Mountain State Park
Roan Mountain State Park
Roan Mountain State Park is a Tennessee state park in Carter County in Northeast Tennessee along the Tennessee-North Carolina border near the community of Roan Mountain, Tennessee. Situated in the Blue Ridge of the Appalachian Mountains, the park preserves woodlands near 6,285 foot Roan Mountain...
, the Savage Gulf State Natural Area in Grundy County, and Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
Established on June 11, 1940, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park located at the border between Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. The Cumberland Gap is a sizable natural break in the Appalachian Mountains....
.
Landry's skill as an interview
Interview
An interview is a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.- Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research:"Definition" -...
er has been remarked upon by many observers. His folksy, rambling style made him effective at putting people at ease and drawing out the interesting stories of the people that he encountered in the "hills, hollows, small towns and major cities" of Appalachia.
In 1998, the series was expanded to include a 30-minute version airing each Saturday at 7:00 p.m., while it continued to run the original five-minute version during the morning news, after 10 News at Noon, and after 10 News Nightbeat.
In total, about 1,900 short episodes and 150 half-hour programs were produced in the show's 25-year history. Bill Landry was host and narrator for the entire series. He also served as co-producer and wrote and directed many episodes. Steve Dean was executive producer for 20 years, and Doug Mills was cameraman for all but one of the episodes.
The series has been successful with audiences, sometimes achieving audience ratings
Audience measurement
Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites...
of 7.0 or higher. In addition to being broadcast on WBIR, the series appeared on WTVC
WTVC
WTVC is the ABC television affiliate in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 9 from a transmitter on Signal Mountain in the community of Walden...
in Chattanooga during the 1980s and was shown on the Travel Channel
Travel Channel
The Travel Channel is a satellite and cable television channel that is headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland, US. It features documentaries and how-to shows related to travel and leisure around the United States and throughout the world. Programming has included shows in African animal safaris,...
(under the title Appalachian Stories) for six years.
End of production
In February 2009, WBIR announced plans to suspend production of the series in September 2009 after taking it "through to some sort of conclusion." WBIR general manager Jeff Lee cited economics as the reason for ending production, noting "it is a luxury for three people to produce 3-1/2 minutes of TV a week." He said that the station would continue to show the hundreds of episodes already produced "for as long as the viewers like them." More than 3,000 people signed an online petitionPetition
A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer....
asking for the series to be continued, but WBIR followed through with its plan to end it. The last episode was taped at the Museum of Appalachia
Museum of Appalachia
The Museum of Appalachia, located in Norris, Tennessee, north of Knoxville, is a living history museum that interprets the pioneer and early 20th-century period of the Southern Appalachian region of the United States...
in Norris
Norris, Tennessee
Norris is a city in Anderson County, Tennessee, United States. Its population was 1,446 at the 2000 census. It is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
on August 8, 2009 before an audience estimated at 10,000 people, one of the largest crowds in the museum's history. People seeking Landry's autograph
Autograph
An autograph is a document transcribed entirely in the handwriting of its author, as opposed to a typeset document or one written by an amanuensis or a copyist; the meaning overlaps with that of the word holograph.Autograph also refers to a person's artistic signature...
waited in line for an hour. The final show featured several Appalachian traditional musicians who had appeared previously in the series, including fiddler
Fiddler
A fiddler is a person who plays a fiddle or violin.Fiddler may also refer to:*Fabrangen Fiddlers, an American musical group founded in 1971*Tupolev Tu-28 "Fiddler", a fighter aircraft*Fiddler , a DC Comics villain...
Danny Gammon, Bobby Fulcher, Tony Thomas
Tony Thomas
Charles Anthony "Tony" Thomas is an American television and film producer, who has produced such TV series as Nurses, Herman's Head, Blossom, Empty Nest, Benson, Beauty and the Beast, The Golden Girls, It's a Living, as well as Dead Poets Society.Thomas is the son of Danny Thomas, and the younger...
and Jimmy McCarroll.
The last episode was scheduled for broadcast as an hour-long special on September 19, 2009, but to avoid conflict with a Tennessee Volunteers
Tennessee Volunteers
The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the National Collegiate Athletic Association college sports teams at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. Mike Hamilton is the most recent Men's Athletic Director, but resigned on June 7, 2011, and Joan Cronan is the current Women's...
football game the broadcast was postponed and rescheduled to be shown in a prime time
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...
slot at 8:00 p.m. on October 17, 2009.
Revival
Public response to the cancellation of the series caused management to reconsider its demise. In 2010 producer Steve Dean was contracted to produce four more episodes, each an hour long. These shows were well received and led to new hour-long installments, to be produced quarterly, through 2011.Recognition and influence
During its 25-year history, The Heartland Series received four Emmy AwardEmmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
s, six Iris Awards from the National Association of Television Program Executives
NATPE
The National Association of Television Program Executives is a professional association of television and emerging media executives...
, one silver medal and two bronze medals from the New York International Film and Television Festival, and a Theodore Roosevelt Award for Best Outdoor Documentary.
On the day that the last episode was taped, former U.S. Senator Howard Baker
Howard Baker
Howard Henry Baker, Jr. is a former Senate Majority Leader, Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee, White House Chief of Staff, and a former United States Ambassador to Japan.Known in Washington, D.C...
, who had appeared in one episode, called the series "the last iteration of our history and culture of a generation." Mark Brown, Carson Newman College's director of news and media relations, described the series as "the nation's longest-running sociological video repository" and said "it did for Southern Appalachia what Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel
Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for The Good War, and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.-Early...
did for Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
."
Thousands of hours of never-broadcast videotape
Videotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
s made during the show's 25-year history are being archived in the historical collection of the McClung Museum
Frank H. McClung Museum
The Frank H. McClung Museum is a general museum located on the campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Built in 1963, exhibits focus on natural history, archeology, anthropology, decorative arts, and local history...
in Knoxville. Episodes from the series have been incorporated into Appalachian studies
Appalachian studies
Appalachian studies is the area studies field concerned with the Appalachian region of the United States.-Scholarship:In 1966, West Virginia University librarian Robert F...
curricula, and The Heartland Series videos depicting Appalachian crafts and craftspeople are displayed in the "Appalachian Heritage" exhibit of the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge
Children's Museum of Oak Ridge
The Children's Museum of Oak Ridge is a non-profit children's museum in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States, that provides museum exhibits and educational programs.-History:...
. United States embassies around the world keep tapes of The Heartland Series broadcasts as an information resource on life in Appalachia.
Theme music
The theme music for The Heartland Series is an arrangement of the ancient GaelicGaels
The Gaels or Goidels are speakers of one of the Goidelic Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Goidelic speech originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to western and northern Scotland and the Isle of Man....
ballad "He Mandu," which is played on the hammered dulcimer
Hammered dulcimer
The hammered dulcimer is a stringed musical instrument with the strings stretched over a trapezoidal sounding board. Typically, the hammered dulcimer is set on a stand, at an angle, before the musician, who holds small mallet hammers in each hand to strike the strings...
by folklorist Guy Carawan
Guy Carawan
Guy Carawan is an American folk musician and musicologist. He serves as music director and song leader for the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee....
.