Word: haley
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...more cleverly or profitably turned social issues into prime-time TV entertainment than Norman Lear and Alex Haley. Without Lear's All in the Family and Haley's Roots, network television in the 1970s might nearly have been bankrupt of innovation. To kick off the new decade, Lear and Haley have joined forces to undertake what could be their most exciting project yet: Palmerstown, U.S.A. is a new series that aspires to combine the historical sweep of Roots II with the activist humor of Lear's best sitcoms. Still, a lot of hard work lies ahead. Though...
...setting is a fictional town in Tennessee around 1935. Palmerstown looks a little like Haley's native Henning and a lot like the homestead of The Waltons. The premise is reminiscent of Mark Twain: two young boys, one black (Jermain Hodge Johnson) and one white (Brian Godfrey Wilson), are best friends despite the racial barriers that separate their respective families. The two-hour opening show introduces the boys and their parents with the dubious aid of a very frail plot mechanism. The white father, a grocer (Beeson Carroll), mistakenly overcharges his black counter part, a blacksmith (Bill Duke...