The Awakening Land

*The Awakening Land*
The Awakening Land
	Warner Bros. Television
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	February 19 –; February 21, 1978

The Awakening Land is a 1978 television

The Town, published from 1940 to 1950. The series originally aired on NBC in three installments from February 19 to February 21, 1978; directed by Boris Sagal, it starred Elizabeth Montgomery and Hal Holbrook

.

Premise

The storyline follows the struggle of Sayward Luckett (Montgomery) after she travels to the unsettled Ohio Valley frontier from post-revolutionary Pennsylvania. She and her family carve out a homestead in the forest, and a community with other settlers. The series follows Sayward from a young single woman, left with three sisters to raise after their mother dies and their father abandons the family, to a married woman who has her own family of seven. Her faithful devotion to her family is recounted against the day-to-day struggle for survival.

Main cast

Elizabeth Montgomery ... Sayward Luckett Wheeler
Hal Holbrook ... Portius Wheeler
Jane Seymour ... Genny Luckett
Steven Keats ... Jake Tench
Louise Latham ... Jary Luckett
William H. Macy ... Will Beagle
Jeanette Nolan ... Granny McWhirter
Bert Remsen ... Isaac Barker
Charles Gowan ... Alan Hamilton
Sean Frye ... Resolve Wheeler, as youth
Tracy Kleronomos ... Dezia Wheeler
Katy Kurtzman ... Rosa Tench
Byrne Piven ... Dr. Pearsall
Julie Gibson ... Lady Peddler

Production notes

Location

The series was shot in historic

New Salem, Illinois. Interiors were filmed in a set constructed in a gymnasium in Springfield, the state capital. The gym was also used to house the prop and wardrobe departments. Filming took 21⁄2 months. As an incentive for the production company to choose the area, the Springfield city council agreed to fill a nearby lake to resemble the Ohio River

. The city arranged for animals from the Elgin Zoo to be transported to the set.

Coaching of cast

The production was faithful to Richter's use of language characteristic of the Ohio Valley in those years. Actress/choreographer Marge Champion instructed the actors in both speech and body language of the region to add to the authenticity of the historical drama.^[1]

Crew

Directed by: Boris Sagal
"The Trees" and "The Fields" script: James Lee Barrett
"The Town" script: Liam O'Brien
Novels written by: Conrad Richter
Executive Producer: Harry Bernstein
Associate Producer: Robin S. Clark
Executive Producer: Tom Kuhn
Producer: Robert E. Relyea
Original Music by: Fred Karlin
Cinematography by: Michel Hugo
Film Editing
by: Bernard J. Small
Production Design
by: Jack DeShields
Set Decoration by: Fred Price
Costume Design
by: Frank Tauss
Key Costumer: Bill Blackburn
Hair Stylist: Sugar Blymyer
Assistant Director: Alan R. Green
First Assistant Director: Dennis E. Jones
Property Master
: Matt Springman
Sound Mixer: Glenn E. Anderson
ADR Editor: Jerry Jacobson
Assistant Cameraman: Jim Mazzula
Choreographer: Marge Champion

Dialogue Supervisor: Marge Champion
Extras Brian Halcomb, Allen Tomlin, Dan Yeager

Award nominations

Year	Award	Result	Category	Recipient
1978	Emmy Award	Nominated	Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Drama Series	Jeanette Nolan For part one
			Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series	Elizabeth Montgomery
			Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series	Hal Holbrook
			Outstanding Individual Achievement in Any Area of Creative Technical Crafts	Sugar Blymyer For part three
			Outstanding Cinematography in Entertainment Programming for a Series	Michel Hugo
			Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore)	Fred Karlin

References

^ Hal Erickson, Overview: The Awakening Land, The New York Times

External links

Hal Erickson, The Awakening Land, The New York Times
The Awakening Land at
IMDb

[nyt-1] Hal Erickson, Overview: The Awakening Land, The New York Times

[1]