''Christy'' is an American

period drama A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and swas ...

series which aired on CBS from April 1994 to August 1995, for twenty episodes."One Week Out: Events coming next weekend," ''The Daily Times'' (Maryville, TN), June 13, 2008, Weekend section: ''"Although Cutter Gap does not exist, it is widely believed that Marshall based the village on the real community of Morgan Branch in nearby Cocke County. Townsend served as Cutter Gap for the popular CBS television series 'Christy' in the mid-1990s."'' ''Christy'' was based on the 1967 novel '' Christy'' by Catherine Marshall, the widow of Senate chaplain Peter Marshall. Inspired by the experiences of the author's mother, the novel had been a bestseller in 1968, and the week following the debut of the TV-movie and program saw the novel jump from #120 up to #15 on the ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virg ...

bestseller A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and specialties (novel, nonfiction book, coo ...

list."USA Today best-selling books," ''USA Today'', April 14, 1994, page 4D. Series regular

Tyne Daly Ellen Tyne Daly (; born February 21, 1946) is an American actress. She has won six Emmy Awards for her television work, a Tony Award and is a 2011 American Theatre Hall of Fame inductee. Daly began her career on stage in summer stock in New York ...

won an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for her work on the series.

Cast

Kellie Martin Kellie Martin (born October 16, 1975) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Rebecca "Becca" Thatcher in '' Life Goes On'' (1989–1993), Lucy Knight on '' ER'' (1998–2000), Samantha Kinsey in the '' Mystery Woman'' TV film ser ...

as Christy Huddleston * Randall Batinkoff as Rev. David Grantland *

Stewart Finlay-McLennan Stewart Finlay-McLennan (born 7 September 1957) is an Australian actor. Finlay-McLennan was born and raised in Broken Hill. He earned a degree from Charles Sturt University in Bathurst, New South Wales, where he majored in Art and Drama. Fin ...

as Dr. Neil MacNeill *

as Alice Henderson * Emily Schulman as Ruby Mae Morrison * Tess Harper as Fairlight Spencer *

LeVar Burton Levar Burton Jr. (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, director, and television host, best known for playing Geordi La Forge in '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (1987–1994). He also played Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries '' ...

as Daniel Scott (Season 2) * Sally Smithwick as Bessie Coburn * Collin Wilcox as Swannie O'Teale *Scott Latham as Festus Allen *Sam Tyler Wayman as John Spencer

Storyline and characters

The show starred

as Christy Huddleston, a new teacher arriving to the fictional

Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, ...

n village of Cutter Gap,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to ...

, in 1912. The villagers have old-fashioned ways. For example, they maintain rules and vengeances similar to the Highland clans of old Scotland. They also have a strong belief in

folk medicine Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous medicine or folk medicine) comprises medical aspects of traditional knowledge that developed over generations within the folk beliefs of various societies, including indigenous peoples, before the ...

. At the same time many of their ways are portrayed in an idealized fashion as well. The show emphasized their culture by making Christy, and most of the main cast, outsiders in one fashion or the other. These "outsiders" included a minister, David Grantland (played by Randall Batinkoff); and

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

missionary woman Alice Henderson, played by

. The television show maintained the book's

romance novel A romance novel or romantic novel generally refers to a type of genre fiction novel which places its primary focus on the relationship and Romance (love), romantic love between two people, and usually has an "emotionally satisfying and optimis ...

element by showing Christy drawn both to the minister and the doctor. The show's last episode was a cliffhanger concerning Christy's fate in the town and with the two rival male love interests. Later TV movies resolved the love triangle according to the ending of the novel.Karen Pierce. "Who will the lucky husband be? '''Christy''' insiders keep mum on subject," ''The Daily Times'' (Maryville, TN), November 17, 2000 (no page number). Christy was developed for television by Emmy Award-winning writer Patricia Green.

Reception and cancellation

The show received mixed reviews from critics. Writing for the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

'',

Tom Shales Thomas William Shales (born November 3, 1944) is an American writer and retired critic of television programming and operations. He was a television critic for ''The Washington Post'' from 1977 to 2010, for which Shales received the Pulitzer ...

said: "It is earnest, well intentioned, based on a beloved book by Catherine Marshall, handsomely photographed, wholesome as a tea cozy, cute as a kitten and almost unspeakably humdrum." He criticized the performances of Martin and Batinkoff. John J. O’Connor of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' was more positive. "This is an impressive production," he wrote. "The cast is generally quite good; Ms. Martin is extraordinary, making Christy's fresh-faced innocence utterly captivating on these beautiful and sometimes dangerous mountains."

Howard Rosenberg Howard Anthony Rosenberg (born June 10, 1942) is an American television critic. He worked at '' The Louisville Times'' from 1968 through 1978 and then worked at the ''Los Angeles Times'' for 25 years where he won a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.< ...

of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' called it "highly appealing" and "too nice to pick apart." The series developed a loyal following among readers of the novel and families. It was an initial ratings success, with the pilot episode placing fifth in the weekly

Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

and inspiring hundreds of letters to CBS from grateful viewers. But it later faltered, as it came on in a period of two years where CBS lost strong affiliates to Fox due to NFL football rights and issues with CBS that had built up years before. Episodes were also expensive to produce, with each installment costing $1.2 million despite generating advertising revenues of only $900,000, in part because it performed poorly among young urban viewers most highly sought by advertisers. The series was cancelled by the network to make way for an attempt to program for younger audiences, but the show's fanbase remained strong despite the cancellation.

Episodes

Season 1: 1994

Season 2: 1994–95

Television movies

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, the family-friendly network

Pax TV Ion Television is an American broadcast television network owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August 31, 1998, as Pax TV, focusing primarily on family-oriented ente ...

produced three made-for-television movies based on unresolved stories from the novel and original CBS series in response to demand from loyal fans, though Kellie Martin did not return as Christy, with

Lauren Lee Smith Lauren Lee Smith (born June 19, 1980) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her television roles, including Emma DeLauro in the syndicated science fiction drama '' Mutant X'', Riley Adams in the CBS forensics drama '' CSI: Crime Scene Invest ...

taking over the role. On November 19, 2000, Pax aired '' Christy: The Movie''. The second and third films aired in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...

as a two part mini-series entitled '' Christy, Choices of the Heart'', with Part 1 entitled ''Christy: A Change of Seasons'' and airing on May 13, 2001, and Part 2 entitled ''Christy: A New Beginning'' and airing on May 14, 2001.

(who played Doctor MacNeill), Bruce McKinnon (Jeb Spencer), Mike Hickman (Bird's Eye Taylor),

Andy Stahl Andrew Render Stahl (born April 8, 1952) is an American actor who has been acting for over 20 years. Two of his more memorable roles were Tom McHone in the '' Christy'' series and General Armand Stassi in '' seaQuest 2032''. Life and career S ...

(Tom McHone), and Dale Dickey (Opal McHone) were the only original TV-series cast members to appear in the telefilms. The Christy movies were developed for television by

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights ...

Tom Blomquist, who served as supervising producer of the original CBS series.

Syndication

The show began airing on

Gospel Music Channel UP TV (stylized as UPtv; formerly GMC TV and originally Gospel Music Channel) is an American basic cable television network that was founded to have a focus on gospel music. It has expanded into family-friendly original movies, series, and speci ...

in June 2009, with a later migration to INSP.

Home media

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film studio, film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm o ...

released the complete series on DVD in Region 1 on March 20, 2007.

Festival

An annual festival, called "ChristyFest," dedicated to ''Christy'', the novel, television series and movies, was held in

Townsend, Tennessee Townsend is a city in Blount County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The city was chartered in 1921 by persons who were involved with the Little River Railroad and Lumber Company. The population was 244 at the 2000 census and 448 at ...

, also home to a private, non-profit museum called

Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center The Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center is a private non-profit museum located in Townsend, Tennessee, United States, near the city's entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Its mission is to preserve the heritage and culture of ...

. Taking place during summer, it was a gathering of those dedicated to the preservation of "Christy" and Southern Appalachian culture. Early in 2018 it was announced that the ChristyFest event would never again be held, but that a successor organization called "Christy Friends" would preserve its spirit.

References

External links

* *
''Christy''
at

TVGuide.com TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008. Corporate ...

Fan Site for ''Christy'' and McNeillA ''Christy'' Fan SiteCatherine Marshall's Masterpiece: ''Christy''
* ttp://christyfest.suddenlaunch3.com/ ChristyFest online forum {{DEFAULTSORT:Christy (Tv Series) 1994 American television series debuts 1995 American television series endings 1990s American drama television series Christy (novel) CBS original programming Christian entertainment television series English-language television shows Fiction set in 1912 Television series set in the 1910s Period family drama television series Primetime Emmy Award-winning television series Television shows based on American novels Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Television shows set in Tennessee Films set in Appalachia Television series by MTM Enterprises