Word: palmerstown
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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...PALMERSTOWN, U.S.A. March 20, CBS, 8p.m. E.S.T...
...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 the first episode of Palmerstown abundantly illustrates Lear's and Haley's political concerns...
...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...
...period detail and acting, Palmerstown is well produced, but it is full of stereotypes and padding. The many repetitive confrontations unfold in the prosaic manner of a high school civics class. The black characters are all saints, as they are not in other Lear and Haley shows, and the whites are generally either fire-breathing racists or pure-hearted liberals. There are also too many sentimental scenes that show the two young heroes frolicking in brotherly love on sunny fields. The results are so tame that not even a last-minute medical crisis can arouse any excitement...
...Lear and Haley would only remember their roots, they should soon bring on a new Edith Bunker or Chicken George to stir Palmerstown...
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